BBC Learning English Words in the News

Twitter shares jump 8 November 2013

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Shares in the microblogging site, Twitter, have nearly doubled in value in the first few hours of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The share price rose above $45, valuing the company at more than $25bn. The BBC's Mark Gregory reports. It will go down as one of the most spectacular debuts in the history of financial markets. Twitter has only been around seven years, has never made a profit and has modest sources of income - yet its shares rose 80% in value the moment it joined the stock market, and then briefly soared even higher than that. Measured by the stock price in relation to revenues, Twitter's shares are now rated as among the most expensive of any new share issue ever. It's a big bet that popularity - Twitter already has 230 million users - will eventually lead to massive profits.

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British Broadcasting Corporation 2013 Page 1 of 2

Vocabulary and definitions

go down debuts profit modest sources of income soared revenue

become known first appearances; (here) launches money earned after costs are paid few and small people or organisations which it gets money from rose very quickly and very highly money which is received regularly

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/11/131108_witn_twitter.shtml Related story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24851054

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