Twitter Lifts IPO Range, Valuation Rises

After last week’s tour of New York, Boston and Chicago, the 70 million shares Twitter expects to sell plus the underwriters’ option on 10.5 million more looks to raise about $1.9 billion, and the company’s valuation will be nearly $11.4 billion, based on the mid-point of the new range.

Twitter, which will trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol TWTR, is expected to price its IPO on Wednesday night and begin trading on Thursday.

While this IPO has not engendered the frenzy that the Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) IPO sparked last year, there is clearly plenty of interest, and it would not be surprising to see the stock price at the top or even above the new range. Recent Internet-related IPOs for Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd. (NASDAQ: QUNR) and Chinese ad network 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) skyrocketed on their first day of trading.

At this point, Twitter’s conservative approach to valuation looks to be paying off. How much money it leaves on the table remains to be seen.