Image via Flickr/ Andrew Mager

Twitter has upped the ante in the very uneven race to see what company will be the most sought after IPO of this year. Yesterday the micro-blogger’s revised S-1 filing hit the Street showing not only how much it has grown over the past three months, but also revealing which exchange it has chosen to list with.

While the company showed 218 million monthly active users by the end of June, its third-quarter statistics have grown to 232 million of which only 53 million are in the U.S. The number of users accessing the service from mobile devices grew somewhat from 75 to 76 percent. Advertising revenue was the winner, growing on mobile by 37 percent since the last report. Other revenue which was up 9 percent. Revenue for the quarter was $168.6 million, up from $139 million in the second-quarter and $82 million for the same period last year.

The company is continuing to grow at a breakneck pace and shows no sign of slowing, but its net loss was also sharper, more than tripling to $64.6 million in the third-quarter from $21.6 million a year ago. Twitter attributed the loss to a swell in sales and marketing costs. It was the worst quarterly loss in the company’s seven year history. Twitter is banking on institutional investors being encouraged by the growth and looking beyond the loss. After all, growth is the most important metric at this point and should be the focus of potential investors when the company hits the road to garner monetary support at the end of October.

Twitter is pressing forward, intending to price its initial public offering on 14 November and begin trading the following morning. One fly in the ointment could be the government shutdown and breach of the debt ceiling. If a deal over the debt ceiling is not reached, analysts are forecasting some measure of stock market chaos that might keep Twitter from getting a good price for its stock. The company hopes to raise $1 billion.

And if you’re wondering where to find Twitter on 15 November, look to the Big Board. In a blow to the Nasdaq, the company has decided to list with the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TWTR. An unusual move for a tech company to be sure, but one that is more than likely predicated on the myriad issues that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) encountered on the Nasdaq exchange on its first day of trading last year.

Disclosure: The author has no position in the stocks mentioned in this article, and does not intend to initiate any position in the next 48 hours.

Theresa Nelson

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