The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, citing unnamed sources, said the initial public offering (IPO) was likely to be at $27 a share, higher than the just-increased range of $23 to $25.
CNBC said three people familiar with the IPO indicated the underwriters had set the $27 price. The Journal said that is the most likely price, but that a range of $25 to 28 was still being debated.
Twitter plans to sell 70m shares, with a possible over-allotment of 10.5m. With that option, it would raise about US$1,89bn through the sale of the shares or, if the extra allotment of shares is taken into account, about US$2.17bn.
With the over-allotment it would be the second-biggest technology IPO after Facebook's US$16bn effort last year and ahead of Google's 2004 offer, which raised US$1.92bn, according to research firm Dealogic.
Shares will trade under the symbol TWTR on the New York Stock Exchange.
Analysts said Twitter's first price range at US$17 to US$20 a share appeared conservative and that the price was likely to rise because of heavy demand.
Still, Twitter is taking a cautious approach to its IPO, in contrast to Facebook, which flooded the market with shares and saw a sharp decline in the following months.
Twitter still must convince investors of its business model, having lost more than US$440bn since 2010.
But with 232m users and growing, it is expected to be able to reach profitability by delivering ads in the form of promoted tweets, and from its data analytics.
The research firm eMarketer estimates Twitter will bring in US$582.8m in global ad revenue this year, and nearly US$1bn in 2014.
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
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