Twitter on Monday increased the price of shares in its initial public offering to a range of US$23 to $25 per share and also revealed that IBM has accused them of infringing on several patents.
Twitter plans to issue 70 million shares, according to?a document?filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which would mean that Twitter could raise $1.75 billion if it sells its shares for the maximum $25 amount. Twitter previously estimated it would sell its shares for between?$17 and $20.
Twitter on Monday also?updated?the risk factors disclosed to the SEC, expanding the intellectual property right threats the company faces, specifically highlighting a claim by IBM.
"From time to time we receive claims from third parties which allege that we have infringed upon their intellectual property rights. In this regard, we recently received a letter from International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM, alleging that we infringe on at least three U.S. patents held by them," said Twitter in the filing, adding that IBM has invited Twitter to negotiate a business resolution.
According to IBM, Twitter infringes on a patent that describes a method of providing links to remotely located information in a network of connected computers, as well as a patent that provides a method for presenting advertising in an interactive service. The third patent describes the programmatic discovery of common contacts, according to the filing.
"Based upon our preliminary review of these patents, we believe we have meritorious defenses to IBM's allegations, although there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us," Twitter said.
Twitter is currently involved in a number of intellectual property lawsuits, it said. In addition, because the company faces increasing competition and is gaining an increasingly high profile, it said it expects the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against it to grow.
