Snap picks banks for IPO - Mobile World Live

Snap picks banks for IPO

13 OCT 2016

Snapchat maker Snap picked Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as bankers for its initial public offering (IPO), which could happen as early as March, Bloomberg reported.

Morgan Stanley had arranged a credit facility for Snap last month. JPMorgan Chase & Co, Deutsche Bank, Allen & Co, Barclays and Credit Suisse will be joint book runners.

The company, which started off as an ephemeral app maker but has since delved into hardware, is seeking a valuation between $20 billion and $25 billion, which could make this the largest social media IPO since Twitter’s in 2013.

Snap, which had a valuation of $15 billion to $18 billion at its last fundraising round, can file IPO documents confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission because its revenue is less than $1 billion.

Snap brought in $59 million in revenue in 2015.

In May, Snap raised $1.8 billion with investment from companies including May Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management and Fidelity.

Last month, Snap said it was set to launch Spectacles, sunglasses with an integrated video camera that connect directly to the photo sharing app.

About 150 million people use Snapchat daily, viewing more than 10 billion videos.

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Saleha Riaz

Saleha joined Mobile World Live in October 2014 as a reporter and works across all e-newsletters - creating content, writing blogs and reports as well as conducting feature interviews...More

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