Snapchat 'to float on US stock market at record IPO'
If photo messaging app has indeed filed for flotation, it could be the biggest since Alibaba
Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc, has filed for stock market flotation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to reports.
The photo-sharing app is expected to raise a record-breaking initial public offering (IPO) if its bid to go public is approved.
"Based on investments so far, the California-based firm would be worth between $20bn and $25bn (£16bn-£20bn)," the BBC reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Snap Inc has yet to comment on the reports, but sources said that the IPO "could happen as soon as March 2017", according to Wired.
If Snap Inc lists on the US stock market, its IPO "would be the biggest since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public in 2014", says City AM. Alibaba, whose total assets are valued at $53bn, raised an IPO valued at $21.8bn, later increased to $25bn.
Snapchat co-founder, Evan Spiegel, revealed in May last year that the firm had plans to go public.
"We need to IPO," he told the Code tech conference, two years after turning down a $3bn (£2.4bn) offer from Facebook to buy the app, which he created in 2011 with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown while they were at Stanford University.
The app allows users to send and receive photo messages which automatically delete after a short time, and has also become a popular way for advertisers and celebrities to promote their brands.
In June, Snapchat passed a significant milestone by overtaking Twitter in its number of daily users, with an estimated 150 million people logging into the app each day, Bloomberg reports.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Parker Palm Springs review: decadence in the California desert
The Week Recommends This over-the-top hotel is a mid-century modern gem
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
The real story behind the Stanford Prison Experiment
The Explainer 'Everything you think you know is wrong' about Philip Zimbardo's infamous prison simulation
By Tess Foley-Cox Published
-
Is it safe for refugees to return to Syria?
Talking Point European countries rapidly froze asylum claims after Assad's fall but Syrian refugees may have reason not to rush home
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Labour shortages: the ‘most urgent problem’ facing the UK economy right now
Speed Read Britain is currently in the grip of an ‘employment crisis’
By The Week Staff Published
-
Will the energy war hurt Europe more than Russia?
Speed Read European Commission proposes a total ban on Russian oil
By The Week Staff Published
-
Will Elon Musk manage to take over Twitter?
Speed Read The world’s richest man has launched a hostile takeover bid worth $43bn
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Shoppers urged not to buy into dodgy Black Friday deals
Speed Read Consumer watchdog says better prices can be had on most of the so-called bargain offers
By The Week Staff Published
-
Ryanair: readying for departure from London
Speed Read Plans to delist Ryanair from the London Stock Exchange could spell ‘another blow’ to the ‘dwindling’ London market
By The Week Staff Published
-
Out of fashion: Asos ‘curse’ has struck again
Speed Read Share price tumbles following the departure of CEO Nick Beighton
By The Week Staff Published
-
Universal Music’s blockbuster listing: don’t stop me now…
Speed Read Investors are betting heavily that the ‘boom in music streaming’, which has transformed Universal’s fortunes, ‘still has a long way to go’
By The Week Staff Published
-
EasyJet/Wizz: battle for air supremacy
Speed Read ‘Wizz’s cheeky takeover bid will have come as a blow to the corporate ego’
By The Week Staff Published