Twitter to close IPO books early on strong demand - sources

By Olivia Oran

REUTERS - Twitter Inc is set to close the books on its $1.75-billion initial public offering a day earlier than scheduled, on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT), amid strong demand for shares, two sources with knowledge of the process said.

The microblogging network still intends to price shares on Wednesday, which will commence trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, said the sources, who declined to be named because the process is not public.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is leading Twitter's initial public offering, alongside Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co .

A spokesperson for Goldman declined to comment. A spokesperson for Twitter could not be reached immediately for comment.

Twitter said Monday it was boosting the price range of its IPO to $23 to $25 a share from an earlier range of $17 to $20 per share. It intends to sell 70 million shares.

Twitter is seeking to avoid making some of the mistakes that plagued Facebook during its IPO debut in May 2012, and analysts have said the company has been conservative with its IPO pricing.

Facebook had raised both the price range and the number of shares it sold, and its stock quickly fell below its offer price following its trading debut, recovering only a year later.

This year is shaping up to be the strongest for U.S. initial public offerings since 2007, with more than 178 companies going public, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Bernadette Baum)