After hearing Mark Zuckerburg's advice to Twitter about its plans for filing for an IPO, the social microblogging service announced today that it has in fact submitted a Form S-1 to the SEC. An S-1 is a document used by companies to register for IPO.
Via a tweet on Thursday, the company said that the filing was confidential and that the "tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.” Later today, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the accuracy of the tweet.
Twitter's timely announcement signifies one thing: it's annual revenue is less than $1 billion. Under the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), an emerging growth company must have a total annual gross revenue of less than $1 billion during its most recent fiscal year. This also means that Twitter's initial filing will be free from public scrutiny.
If everything goes well, then Twitter will be required to disclose everything to the public. The report comes after Twitter's acquisition of mobile advertising exchange company, MoPub, earlier this week.