Snap shares debut after better-than-expected IPO

The Snapchat logo appears on a phone screen
(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Snap raised $3.4 billion in its better-than-expected initial public offering of stock on Wednesday. The company, which is the parent of the popular messaging app Snapchat, sold 200 million shares at $17 each, above the projected range of $14 to $16. The pricing values the company at $24 billion. Snap's stock makes its market debut on Thursday. Snap's IPO is among the most anticipated tech debuts since Twitter's in 2013 and Facebook's in 2012. Snapchat had 158 million daily active users at the start of the year, most of them young people, from teens to those in their early 30s. The app's growth slowed last year as it faced competition from Facebook's Instagram photo-sharing app.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Harold Maass

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 launch of the U.S. print edition. Harold has worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Fox News, and ABC News. For several years, he wrote a daily round-up of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.