Twitter unveils plans for stock offering

Twitter announced in a tweet,that it has submitted papers for a stock offering, the most hotly anticipated in the tech sector since Facebook’s last year.

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale,” the company tweeted yesterday.

Talk of an initial public offering (IPO) has circulated about Twitter for some time, and the Wall Street Journal estimated the company founded in 2006 is worth some $10 billion.

Twitter has become one of the fastest-growing and most influential social media services, used widely by celebrities, journalists, politicians and others. The company said earlier this year it had “well over 200 million” active users, although some analysts say the figure is much higher.

Twitter this week said it was moving deeper into mobile advertising with the purchase of MoPub, a startup focusing on mobile ad exchanges.

The acquisition announced late Monday was estimated to be worth some $350 million, according to the technology news site TechCrunch.