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Twitter Avoids Facebook IPO Disaster, Registers Stunning Debut

Twitter’s debut as a publicly traded company could be summed up in a lot fewer than 140 characters: "Wow!"

The social-networking giant priced its shares at $26 ahead of Thursday’s initial public offering, and by 11 a.m. ET, they were nearly double that, just north of $50, finally closing at $44.90 and slipping another 1 percent in after-hours trading.

Industry watchers were curious to see how Twitter would do after fellow social-media behemoth Facebook went the other direction when it went public a year ago. Beginning at $38 per share, the stock fell on its first day and went on to lose more half of its value in three months. It has rebounded nicely since, however, rising from less than $18 at its low point in Sept. 2012 to more than $54 one day last month.

Twitter’s start is all fine and good, investors will continue to watch it closely, The New York Times noted, because it needs to justify the $30 billion placed upon it. Expect the price to be pretty volatile in its first few weeks, if not longer.

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