Why Was Twitter’s IPO So Successful? Respect Of The IPO Process Was Key, Say Analysts And Investors

Twitter soared into its IPO on Thursday, with shares of the social media network opening at $45.10, a 70 percent increase from the IPO price of $26 the company set ahead of the sale.

With such a successful IPO, many are wondering how the micro-blogging service avoided the pitfalls that led to the major letdown that was Facebook’s IPO in 2012. Twitter surpassed many predictions and raised close to $2 billion with the offering, with closing shares ending their first day at $44.90, USA Today reports. This is in comparison to Facebook’s first day closing shares that increased less than 1 percent in May 2012, only to continue to fall in the months after the IPO, The Atlantic Wire reports.

Analysts and investors have highlighted several reasons for the strong response to Twitter’s IPO, naming factors such as the offering sizes of Facebook and Twitter, the investors chosen to get stock and technical issues affecting the stock exchange. But the most prominent reason for the drastically different performance of Twitter's and Facebook’s public offerings has been identified as the former's adherence to the conventional IPO process and a respect for institutional investors, USA Today adds.

Leading up to the IPO, Twitter executives made a point of reaching out to more investors and making themselves available to listen to trying answering questions about the offering. This included going so far as to create an investor relations department before the IPO. Dan Miller-Smith -- CEO of IPO-focused research firm SyndicatePro.com -- detailed that during those talks, Twitter executives shared the company’s plans to create both technology and advertising products that capitalize on the change to smartphones and mobile devices from desktop computers. This move was vastly different from Facebook's failure to address mobile-advertisement question during its own IPO.

"Management at Twitter -- Dick Costolo in particular -- knew how to play ball with Wall Street and they took the roadshow very seriously," said Miller-Smith. "In contrast, Mark Zuckerberg showed his immaturity at the roadshow events wearing his trademark hoodie to meetings with large institutional players, which was to many a sign of disrespect." This adherence to Wall Street conventions is the main reason investors and analysts cite for the company’s triumphant IPO.