Today’s the big day for Snap Inc., the parent company of dick pic app Snapchat and some confusing drone project: It’s set to begin trading on Wall Street today after the company priced its IPO at $17 a share. Snap’s valuation could be as high as $24 billion, the largest for a US-based tech company since Facebook went public. It’s just a bummer that Snap seems like it’s doomed, since it lost over half a billion dollars last year.
Nevertheless, people are excited, though Snap’s $17 a share pales in comparison to Facebook’s IPO, where shares were priced at $38 a pop. The company’s fate on Wall Street also stands to serve as a litmus test of sorts that will help us understand if the age of overhyped social media companies is coming to a close. Even Snap itself has tried to distance itself from its app-based roots by declaring that it’s now a camera company from the future, whatever that means.
Snap Inc. shares are reportedly expected to start trading around 11am EST on Thursday morning. According to the planned sale, the company raised $3.4 billion by issuing and selling 200 million shares, and Snap co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy each sold 16 million shares, netting the entrepreneurs $272 million each. Just look how happy they are when they rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange:
Evan Spiegel’s Facebook-hating beau, supermodel Miranda Kerr, was also there:
We’ll be watching the market when Snap Inc. shares start trading and will update this post with any exciting news.
Update 11:45am: Snap Inc. stock is now trading at $25 a share and climbing. In fact, the company’s valuation rose to $33 billion in the first minute of trading. Miranda Kerr expressed her happiness on Instagram:
Update 5:20pm: Snap Inc. shares closed at a price that was 44 percent higher than the IPO price. Snapchat’s founders got a bit richer than expected. However, some analysts predict that the stock price will plunge in the coming days.