Twitter Files $1 Billion IPO Despite Shutdown, Reveals Losses

Twitter announced the impending IPO through, not surprising, a tweet.

"Our S-1 will be filed publicly with the SEC momentarily. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale," Twitter said through its official account.

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The filing comes in the wake of the government shutdown, which has closed many government operations and sent home more than 800,000 employees. The SEC itself is running on approximately 6 percent of its regular staff but will continue operation, including IPOs, until its remaining extra funds run out.

Goldman Sachs is the lead investor in the IPO. Other underwriters include Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, Code Advisors and Allen & Company LLC.

The filing finally put to rest the speculation over how much revenue the social media giant actually makes. The company took in $253.6 million in the six months before June 30, 2013, but accounted for a $69 million loss during the same period in net income. The company has continued to post multimillion-dollar losses since 2010, the data provided in the SEC filing said.

The company said its growth strategy going forward will be focused on its users, platform partners and advertisers. Twitter said it sees a lot of opportunity for growth in its user base, as it only has 215 million monthly users out of the estimated 2.4 billion Internet users. To further engage platform partners, it plans to expand its platform and build better relationships with traditional media. Finally, it plans to focus on more targeted and alternative advertising opportunities as well as expanding its advertising base.

Twitter admitted that if it failed to grow its user base, revenues would take a hit because advertising numbers -- which, according to the S-1 filing, account for the substantial majority of the company's revenue -- would not continue to rise. The problem with user growth is that it depends on many factors outside Twitter's control, such as operating systems, networks and devices.

Shares of Twitter, under the ticker symbol TWTR, are expected to begin trading in November.

PUBLISHED Oct. 3, 2013