Snapchat CEO Confirms Tech Bubble, Announces IPO Anyway
Snapchat founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel yesterday announced that the self-destructing photo app is planning an initial public offering. "We need to IPO," Spiegel said during a Re/code panel in California. (Side note: it was also announced at the event that Vox Media had acquired the company that owns Re/code, a tech blog.) He went on to sing the praises of staying private in the face of takeover offers from the likes of Facebook, whose $3B bid Snapchat rebuffed in 2013. "It's more fun that way," he said.
Spiegel didn't go into specifics or even hint at a timeframe. But his other remarks during the annual Re/code conference suggest the teen-friendly company won't twiddle its thumbs on the smartphone for long. "There will be a correction," he said when the increasingly popular subject of a tech bubble arose. He explained that "people are making riskier investments" thanks to an "easy money policy" and rock bottom interest rates.
Snapchat was valued at $10B in December following a $485M fundraising round. Reports followed in February of a subsequent $500M round that would nearly double that valuation.
