Twitter says it has begun an IPO process

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) — Social website Twitter said Thursday that it has filed preliminary paperwork with U.S. regulators to initiate a public stock offering. 

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC [the Securities and Exchange Commission] for a planned IPO,” Twitter said in an online posting. 

USA Today reported the message posted said, “This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.” 

However, the statement is part of the standard operating procedure for moving ahead with an initial public offering of stock. 

The company is in the early stages of going public. It has not yet filed an official registration statement with the SEC, the newspaper reported. 

Filing early paperwork confidentially is allowed for companies with less than $1 billion in annual sales. It allows the SEC and the company to make paperwork adjustments before moving any further in the process. 

An initial public offering analyst, Francis Gaskins of IPO Desktop.com, said it was likely Twitter would be ready to launch its IPO in early December.