So Twitter has filed for its long-expected IPO, but how much is the company really worth

So Twitter has filed for its long-expected IPO, but how much is the company really worth? If management learned any lessons from the botched Facebook (FB) IPO, then Twitter should focus on a reasonable valuation come launch time. With projected revenues of $1 billion next year, and roughly 240 million active users already, there are good reasons to be optimistic about the company. Moreover, unlike Facebook at the time of its IPO, over half of Twitter's revenues come from mobile ads. FB is currently trading at approximately 18 times revenues. Using the same logic (because it's too soon to focus on earnings), Twitter's value based on projected revenues is $18 billion. That roughly squares with what funds are paying for Twitter's private shares. As such, I wouldn't be surprised to see an IPO valuation of around $20 billion, but not much higher.