Investors have long been waiting for one of the most exciting public offerings of the decade and Snap Inc is readying itself to give them just that. There have already been reports that the Snapchat parent has secretly filed for its IPO last year. But the company is finally making the financial statements and inner workings available for its initial public offering by late next week, reports Recode.
Post this much-anticipated IPO filing, Wall Street analysts will finally be able to take a peek at the financial numbers of the rapidly growing social networking giant. This will give investors a chance to analyze the core business of the company which is still led by its ephemeral chat application. The company has, however, also ventured into the hardware ecosystem with the release of ‘Spectacles’ last year. This also gives the investors another avenue to explore while checking out Snapchat’s background.
The proceedings for the public offering are being led by investment banks — Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. But, there are also a string of other properties involved in making the IPO happen. Snapchat is currently looking to raise as much as $4 billion at a massive valuation of $25 billion. But, being one of the biggest technology offerings, the interest in the business could also pull in more people and create a higher demand. The IPO is expected to go live sometime in March.
After the said filing is complete, Snap Inc most likely needs to wait twenty-one days before starting a road show to popularize and market its public offering to investors. The company will make its case to Wall Street investors, convincing them on why they should back this fledging social media company. Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel is looking to emphasize on their dedicated user base of 150 million daily active users, the average revenue per user and their future outlook (this is an important one!)
Snapchat’s parent has recently been feeling immense pressure from other social networks, who’re stripping them of their original features. They’re copying functionalities and implementing them within their own apps and succeeding at doing the same (looking at you Facebook). Snap Inc is, however, continuously trying to set itself apart from the crowd with the release of new features — be it a complete redesign or a new ad targeting method. The company is also expected to release more hardware products in the near future.
