Twitter IPO Reactions Already Impacting Other Social Media

One trader who was awarded Twitter shares at the IPO told us that some 50 million of the 70 million shares in the offering were effectively placed with buy and hold technology and media investors. That means that only 20 million shares, or 30 million or so after the overallotment shares, will make up the real free float.

We are already seeing profit taking in the secondary and tertiary Twitter and social media trades. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is down 1.6% at $48.32 on 20 million shares. LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) is down 2.3% at $215.40 on 725,000 shares.

Two business development company funds have shares as well and both are seeing “sell the news” reactions. We see that Firsthand Technology Value Fund (NASDAQ: SVVC) is down almost 4% at $22.85 and GSV Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: GSVC) is down 2.8% at $15.01 so far.

Trading indications for Twitter were first starting at $35 with 8 million shares ordered, then 10 million shares. The broad tape indications on share pricing were as follows:

• $40 to $44 at 9:45
• $42 to $46 at 9:52
• $44 to $45 at 9:57
• $45 to $46 at 10:06

As a reminder, we already had four analysts show very positive analyst price targets on Twitter.

See our Live Blogging of the Twitter IPO for constant updates.