Snapchat had a rather successful year so far. The company which recently rebranded itself into Snap Inc. now boasts over 150 million of daily active users who are enjoying its video-sharing social network and that number is expected to rise in the coming months. In addition to investing in user acquisition, Snap has also been putting in a lot of money into diversifying its portfolio and is now almost ready to enter the hardware industry with its upcoming pair of connected glasses called Spectacles. So, despite being in the industry for over half a decade, the company is still exhibiting signs of startup-like growth. Its executives are rather happy with the way things are going and want to continue fueling growth. However, such an ambitious endeavor requires a lot of liquidity and the best way to quickly acquire massive amounts of cash when you’re a promising Internet company like Snap is – to go public.
And that brings us to today. As reported by Bloomberg, the Venice, California-based firm is actively preparing an initial public offering (IPO). While this isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors of Snapchat going public, these latest accounts suggest a level of ambition and optimism from Snap Inc. that has been unheard of so far. The first report of the company going public indicated that its IPO would value it at around $25 billion, but that number is actually on the lower end of the scale of what Bloomberg’s sources familiar with the matter are now claiming. More specifically, Snap’s IPO will allegedly value the company at between $25 billion and $40 billion. The social media firm is planning to raise up to $4 billion in cash and is already preparing documentation necessary for a listing.
No final decisions have yet been made, but sources claim that a listing is due in early 2017. In addition to that, Snap has allegedly already appointed Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to head its IPO. That certainly doesn’t seem like a bad choice given the fact that this finance group already has experience with ambitious Internet companies with increasingly diversified portfolios seeing how it also led Facebook’s IPO back in 2012. Of course, these reports are still unconfirmed, and Snap’s representatives continue to dismiss requests for comments.