Twitter is going public.  That’s the news today as the company has filed its S-1 with the SEC.  You will soon get your opportunity to own a piece of that Twitter action.  The story broke on AllThingsD.  Going public is sure to make big news and get a lot of people talking for weeks to come.  There’s been a number of really important IPO’s but Twitter is a well-known name that is going to draw a lot of both praise and criticism.  Here’s the announcement from the official Twitter account:

We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.

— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013

Valuation can be a funny thing and it can be tough to predict what’s going to happen.  Some numbers have the company valued at up to $20 billion.  The deal is the offering will be underwritten by Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter.

Assuming Twitter does eventually decide to sell shares to the public, it will eventually have to disclose financial documents to the rest of world. In the meantime, the company and its bankers can communicate with the SEC in private.

The fact that Twitter is taking advantage of a JOBS filing means that the company’s annual revenue is less than $1 billion, since anyone above that threshold  can’t use that process. “Secret” IPOs have been popular throughout 2013, though this is the first time we’ve seen a company acknowledge the initial S-1 filing in public.

One major benefit to filing confidentially is that if Twitter does have any issues to hash out with the SEC early on in the process, we won’t get to see that particular sausage get made.

Many people will be watching this news with extreme caution, the last really big name to IPO was Facebook, which was a bungled affair to say the least.  Public investment in the company has rebounded however in the year and change that has passed, and the value of the company has largely recovered since those issues.    Twitter will be viewed similarly by the public in that social space and dependent on their advertising for revenue.  Part of the S-1 filing means the public will get to review the financial details of how the company operates and spends money.  This will be interesting to watch.  Expect more analysis and insight from SiliconANGLE as this story plays out.