Twitter bankers close IPO order book early

SAN FRANCISCO -- The time for ordering shares in the Twitter initial public offering is over, a bullish sign for the most anticipated technology stock market debut since Facebook.

Banks underwriting the IPO told investors that the order book closed Tuesday morning, earlier than expected, according to two people who got email updates on the subject. They did not want to be identified because the IPO plans are still private.

Twitter's IPO had been scheduled to price on Wednesday evening, but the early closing of the order book suggests that there may be strong enough demand to price it Tuesday. That would mean the stock starts trading Wednesday, instead of Thursday.

"That's a very bullish sign for Twitter and means it may be pricing tonight for tomorrow trading," says Thomas Wyman, chief investment officer of The Global Internet Fund and a former tech banker. "I used to be a banker at Hambrecht & Quist and this is how we did it."

However, one of the people emailed about the offering said the pricing will still happen Wednesday evening.

Reuters reported the early closing of the IPO order book earlier this week and said that Twitter still planned to price the offering Wednesday.