Twitter Inc’s bankers contacted early investors this week asking them to sign a 180-day lock-up agreement by Wednesday afternoon, showing the company is moving swiftly toward its initial public offering.<\/p>\n
The email from Goldman Sachs, the lead underwriter of Twitter’s IPO, asked shareholders to sign and return a form by 5 pm Pacific time on Wednesday acknowledging that they would be prohibited from selling shares for 6 months after the firm lists, according to two shareholders who received the email.<\/p>\n
Twitter declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Twitter and Goldman are moving swiftly to prepare for the IPO and could soon disclose its S-1 documents that lay out Twitter’s IPO plans and its well-guarded financial numbers.<\/p>\n
Quartz, the business news website, first reported on Sunday that Twitter intended to make its IPO plans public this week.<\/p>\n
Companies often use lock-up agreements to prevent insiders from selling shares simultaneously following an IPO, thereby flooding the market and depressing the stock price.<\/p>\n
Twitter, which is expected to be valued at up to $15 billion, tweeted on Sept 12 that it had filed with U.S. regulators to go public, but had done so confidentially and without providing a timeline under a process available to emerging growth companies.<\/p>\n
Twitter IPO marches forward<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Twitter: from tiny tweets to towering tank<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Twitter won\u2019t lose its prince in IPO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n