Twitter snaps up ex-banker IPO expert - CAN'T THINK WHY

Twitter has hired an ex-banker with experience in initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions to head up its corporate development team, sparking rumours of an upcoming market debut.

The microblogging site is one of the next tech firm public offerings for investors to get overly excited about. Which they probably will, despite the fact that the last big tech IPO, Facebook's, went somewhat less than smoothly. Other hotly tipped stocks, like Zynga and Groupon, have also failed to set the markets alight.

Twitter is a better bet for shareholders however, given that it's already making money and targeting a hefty $1bn in revenue next year.

Twitter general counsel Alex MacGillivray announced Cynthia Gaylor's appointment, appropriately enough, in a tweet:

Excited to welcome @cynthiag as head of @twitter corp dev. She's joining a great team /cc @jess

— Alex Macgillivray (@amac) May 2, 2013

To which she replied with her first tweet:

@amac @twitter @jess look forward to joining and focusing on M&A + strategy. pointed north ... let the migration begin!

— cynthia gaylor (@cynthiag) May 2, 2013

Neither tweet mentions an IPO, of course, since the firm has maintained it's not focused on going public right now - although it's widely predicted to be considering the move.

A former managing director of Morgan Stanley's global technology group, Gaylor has also worked at JP Morgan where she specialised in mergers and acquisitions, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The last valuation of Twitter, in January, put the social site's price tag at around $9bn, after early employees sold shares to a BlackRock fund for $80m. ®