Google reportedly wanted to pay around $30 Billion to acquire Snap Inc. according to a recent report from Business Insider. This would be about $26 Billion more than what Google was rumored to be offering to buy out Snapchat back in late 2015. While there hasn’t been recent detail regarding the possible interest for such an acquisition short of the rumors floating around about the initial interest from the last week or so, the report states that Google was interested in buying up the social application service at some point in 2016, with multiple inside sources reportedly mentioning Google’s plans while also floating the same cost that Google was willing to shell out should a deal have been struck.
None of the details have been confirmed and naturally since it’s now 2017 and Snap Inc. has since taken its company public just a little earlier this year, it’s a reasonable assumption that either Snap Inc. wasn’t interested in such an acquisition or Google lost interest, though it seems that Google may have presented the idea as it’s said people within Snap Inc. were aware of the interest regarding the buyout.
If any talks did take place at one point, it’s suspected that Google may have floated the idea of a buyout at $30 Billion prior to Snap Inc’s $20 Billion valuation from its Series F Funding in May of last year. While this seems to be the first time that details of such an acquisition have been publicly rumored so far this year, the report mentions that Google may have also had discussions with Snap about an acquisition sometime just before it went public in 2017. Though Snap was valued at $20 Billion during its Series F Funding in 2016 and around $24 Billion around the time of its IPO this year, the rumor asserts that Google hasn’t lowered its initial price of $30 Billion, and that it has remained the price at which Google was willing to pay to buy the company. Even though rumors about a possible Snap acquisition by Google have been around for the better part of a year at this point, it appears that Snap Inc. still has no interest in being acquired, though there are some thoughts on why it would be a good thing for both companies, including Google having control of a social network that has seen massive popularity growth which also continues to remain a popular platform for its users, while Snap would be able to utilize Google’s advertising chops to bring in more cash.