Twitter's Loss Widens

Twitter Inc. revealed fresh financial details in a securities filing, including continued user growth but a wider loss in the third quarter, as costs continued to outpace revenue.People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw on September 27.The San Francisco social network also Tuesday said it plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, NYX -0.61% a strong endorsement of the Big Board's effort to be a trading hub for technology companies.The filing advances Twitter toward an initial public offering that could take place in November. The roadshow for the IPO could begin as soon as Oct.vacuum bottle25, according to people close to the discussions, although it isn't clear if it will.united-promoFor the third quarter, Twitter said its net loss widened to $64.6 million, from $21.6 million, in the same period a year earlier. The company booked big increases in expenses for research and development, and sales and marketing.Quarterly revenue more than doubled, to $168.6 million, from $82.3 million a year ago. That was roughly the same growth rate as in the second quarter.Helping to drive revenue was advertising on mobile devices, as users increasingly access Twitter on their smartphones. The company said more than 70% of advertising revenue came from mobile devices in the third quarter, compared with more than 65% in the second quarter. 

To put Twitter's ad business in perspective: Users clicked on or retweeted 15 times as many ads in the third quarter as in the first quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, the average price of each ad is down over 75%.Twitter said it averaged 232 million active users per month in the third quarter, 6% more than in the second quarter. The growth rate slowed, from 7% in the second quarter and 10% in the first quarter. By comparison,vacuum flask Facebook Inc. FB -0.02% has nearly 1.2 billion monthly users.The filing also revealed new details about Twitter's biggest shareholders. Private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management LLC holds the biggest stake with 17.9%, followed by J.P. Morgan JPM -0.76% with 10.3%. Other major holders include Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital Partners, Union Square Ventures and DST Global. Other than J.P.beilin-bearing Morgan, those firms were listed in Twitter's initial filing, but their stakes weren't specified.Twitter's choice of the NYSE was a setback for Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., NDAQ -0.60% whose Nasdaq Stock Market has historically been the home for many technology shares. Nasdaq last year oversaw Facebook's glitch-filled IPO.Twitter executives have sought to avoid some of the pitfalls that befell Facebook, people close to the company have said. 

"This is a 180 [degree turn] from Facebook," said Patrick Healy, chief executive of Issuer Advisory Group LLC, which advises companies on stock-exchange issues. "It's Twitter's way of saying, 'don't paint me with the same brush.'"Landing Twitter burnishes the NYSE's claim as a home for Internet and social media companies. The exchange is a unit of NYSE Euronext, which is in the process of merging with Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Inc. Over the last two years, NYSE also landed high-profile tech firms LinkedIn Corp.thermos flask LNKD +3.04% , Yelp Inc. YELP -0.75% and Pandora Media Inc., P +0.72% while Nasdaq won Zillow Inc., Z -0.10% Groupon Inc. GRPN +1.54% and Zynga Inc. "All of us at Nasdaq wish Twitter well as they pursue their initial public offering," a Nasdaq spokesman said."This is a decisive win for the NYSE, and a continuation of our momentum in the technology sector. We look forward to joining with Twitter on this landmark IPO," said Scott Cutler, NYSE's head of listings.