Snap, the parent company of social media app Snapchat, is hitting Wall Street Thursday valued at $23.8 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That makes it the biggest tech IPO in the U.S. since Alibaba in 2014.
The company priced its IPO at $17 per share, selling much of the 200 million shares to mutual funds expected to hold onto the stock. Since CEO Evan Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy want to retain control, Snap will be selling non-voting shares only and some investors won’t be allowed to dump the stock for up to a year, Business Insider reports.
Snapchat began as picture messaging app and gained notoriety with a reputation of “sexting” — the messages appear for up to 10 seconds before disappearing. With 70.4 million users in 2017, it’s become one the fastest growing social media platform and long shed that stigma.
In 2016, Snap started to expand past social media into the realm of hardware with wearable tech. Spectacles, sunglasses with an integrated camera that lets users share photos to Snapchat, gained buzz for launching via pop-up vending machines around the country. The company is developing a drone as its next product, New York Times reports.
—RealClearLife
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