Twitter, the social media and microblogging service, posted a tweet last night that noted it had "confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO", starting the clock on the process of taking the company public. GigaOm suggests Twitter is looking to offer shares at between $26 and $28, which would value Twitter at around $14 billion.

Twitter has been able to use this confidential filing method thanks to the JOBS act of 2012, which allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to file confidentially. Twitter is likely looking to avoid its IPO being turned into an over-hyped event, which points to the actual IPO taking place as soon as is possible, possibly even before the end of the year.

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.

— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013

Twitter's IPO will not be on the scale as Facebook's $100 flotation, but it should still be on of the highest profile in the tech industry this year. Speculation about the company going public has been frequent in the past few years, primarily due to the visibility of the company and the fact that investors have put hundreds of millions of capital.

Twitter, is one of four services, along with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Weibo, that is built directly into Windows Phone (Me Tile / People Hub). Taking the company public will have no immediate impact on this or the operation of Twitter on any smartphone, but the company and service will inevitably face greater public scrutiny and more pressure to build revenues.

Twitter app on Windows Phone