• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 12, 2013

Twitter said Thursday the company took the first step toward going public by submitting to the Securities and Exchange Commission a confidential S-1 filing, which means the company admits to generating less than $1 billion in annual revenue.

President Obama has signed the JOBS Act into law, allowing companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to go public without releasing the financial documents that usually accompany the move.

Twitter is expected to earn $582.8 million in global ad revenue this year before reaching nearly $1 billion in 2014, according to eMarketer. The analyst firm expects the company's growth to come from a strong mobile business.

More than half of Twitter's ad revenue should come from mobile advertising this year globally -- a higher percentage of total ad revenue than Facebook will earn from mobile, according to Clark Fredricksen, VP at eMarketer. About $308 million will come from mobile advertising worldwide, up 123.2% from $138 million last year.

So the question remains: how much does Twitter generate in annual revenue, and where will the majority of the revenue come from? Perhaps mobile -- but services also are a good bet. The company last week acquired the mobile ad exchange MoPub, reportedly for $350 million, giving it a platform for driving mobile ad revenue and new services.

Twitter also has been strengthening its corporate finance department with open job requisitions for senior financial analysts who will evaluate partnerships and merger and acquisition deals. They're also looking for a tax manager, trademark council, and stock admin, which will "interface with external partners."

This year, about 131 companies have filed for IPOs -- up 44% from last year, according to USA Today, citing Renaissance Capital.

Goldman Sachs Group, the lead underwriter, planned the initial stock sale for the initial public offering, reports The Wall Street Journal.



The tweet heard round the street.