Twitter Preparing for IPO

In a move that has been long anticipated by business and technology experts worldwide, San Francisco-based Twitter announced Thursday that it has privately filed for its first public sale of shares.

Twitter said Thursday afternoon in a statement that "We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale."

Experts project the Twitter IPO to create as much of a stir as the Facebook IPO did but Twitter executives are hoping for a smoother road for the company and investors.

"Twitter's massive growth has produced strong IPO buzz for years, but neighbor Facebook's rough Wall Street debut quieted much of the excitement," according to the Wall Street Journal.

"The Menlo Park company exercised a record-breaking IPO in May 2012 that valued CEO Mark Zuckerberg's creation at more than $100 billion, but problems with initial trades and doubts about Facebook's ability to generate revenues helped push shares from an initial price of $38 to less than $20 in the first year of public availability."

Facebook's Wall Street experience has become less hectic and the company's stock has fully recovered, posting an all time high of $45 Wednesday after recent earnings reports showing strong gains in mobile revenues.

Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams and Biz Stone, and has grown to more than 200 million users who share their thoughts in bursts of no more than 140 characters at least once a month, with estimates of total users surpassing 500 million.

If you need advice about how you should be planning for your financial future, contact Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith CPAs. We'll be happy to assist you.

CPA Poll Indicates Upward Hiring Trend

In a poll conducted by the American Institute of CPAs, accounting executives in US companies are projecting increased hiring despite concerns about the outlook of the American economy. The quarterly AICPA Economic Outlook Survey polls CEOs, CFOs, controllers and other CPAs in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles, according to Accounting Today.

Friday’s monthly jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that current hiring trends are still relatively weak. The AICPA survey, however, serves as a forward-looking indicator of hiring expectations over the next 12 months. 

Some 15 percent of respondents now say they have too few employees and are planning to hire in the next 12 months, up from 12 percent last quarter and 9 percent a year ago. Another 19 percent say they have too few employees but are reluctant to bring on new staff. 

Some 53 percent of business executives indicated their companies have the right number of employees. The largest companies (those with more than $1 billion in annual revenue) are more likely than other businesses to say they have too few employees. On an industry basis, the construction, technology, and professional, technical and scientific services sectors are expected to post the largest job growth.

If you're anticipating hiring additional personnel for your company and you have questions, please give Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith PLLC a call. We'd be happy to advise you. 

See this from Indeed.com (http://indeed.com) 

Job Postings 119,868	Accounting job postings have increased 6% since August 2012. Clicks on Accounting jobs have increased 21% since August 2012.
Clicks 9,335,782	Top Job Titles Clicks 0 300,000 Staff Accountant 271,435 Accountant 155,785 CONTROLLER 149,790 Accounting Clerk 147,114 Account Manager 145,383 Business Analyst 141,325 Senior Accountant 127,767 Accounts Payable Clerk 117,342 Bookkeeper 104,872 Accounting Manager 90,934
Top Keyword Searches Clicks 0 950,000 accounting 913,060 accountant 369,358 accounts payable 190,849 controller 147,898 finance 105,920 payroll 101,228 business analyst 80,793 accounts receivable 76,810 staff accountant 72,199 bookkeeper 70,481	Top Locations Clicks 0 450,000 New York, NY 449,970 Houston, TX 243,176 Atlanta, GA 211,652 Chicago, IL 205,303 United States 187,862 Washington, DC 147,953 Los Angeles, CA 141,926 Dallas, TX 132,259 Charlotte, NC 114,439 San Francisco, CA 105,963
Statistical approximations are used to compute these results.

Will this be The Winter of Our Discontent?

     With apologies to Shakespeare this is a little preview of some of the emerging economic concerns that will start to focus the mind before the winter months give way. Much of what we will be dealing with in the months to come will be extensions of what we have been wrestling with for the past three years but there are some new issues that are rearing their ugly heads and that will complicate the
strategies that have been in place thus far.
     The three to focus on for the moment are inflation threats, the impact of long term unemployment and the impact of a new Congress with more deficit hawks than before. Up to this point the strategy from Congress, the Executive branch and the Federal Reserve has been basically in sync and focused on economic pump priming. There has been no real concern over inflation as deflation had seemed more
imminent only a few months ago. The issue of employment has been front and center for the entire recession although there has clearly been a limit as to  what could practically be done. The deficit hand wringing was universal but very few in Congress had anything approaching a mandate to do something about all this.
     Now there is some evidence developing that will force a new look at the inflation threat in the future. Reports from the regional Fed banks in Philadelphia and New York show that manufacturers are universally reporting an expectation of higher priced inputs and when that hits the economy there will be increased price pressure.
    The employment situation is vexing and there is about to be a real crisis for
those who have been without jobs for the longest period of time. Getting this group back into the work force will be a major undertaking. The deficit hawks will be put to the test but there has already been a rejection of the budget for next year.