What’s So Hot about Twitter?

How does that stack up with some other IPOs in the tech world? Financial analysis firm Sageworks Inc. has prepared a handy chart comparing Twitter’s pending IPO with those of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple went public in 1980, Microsoft in 1985, and Facebook just last year. In the following chart, Sageworks uses the number of Class A common shares outstanding to compute Twitter’s valuation.

As Sageworks’ chairman notes, “[Twitter] is still losing money, and at least Facebook was profitable when they went public. Proponents of the stock are talking about the potential of Twitter, but most companies that go public have potential, so this is immaterial to the conversation.” Ouch.

The IPO is set to price on Wednesday night and begin trading on Thursday on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “TWTR.”