But the banks also got an option to buy an additional 10M shares at $26 in the next 30 days. By keeping the price low, the banks made a $500M profit on top of t

But the banks also got an option to buy an additional 10M shares at $26 in the next 30 days. By keeping the price low, the banks made a $500M profit on top of their fees. The banks are triple dipping on the IPO: the fee (3.25%), their options on 10M shares, and their ability to limit IPO access to clients that give them profitable business. That said Twitter extracted some sweetheart loans from their underwriters and the fee is much lower than the usual 7%, so it's definitely a two way game where both sides are trying to take advantage of the other.