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ZEENAT MOORAD: Is Snapchat worth this?
Never before have the words poop and sexting been used in a listing prospectus
Snap Inc’s IPO had a lot of firsts. Never before have the words poop and sexting been used in a listing prospectus. A supermodel (Miranda Kerr, fiancée of company co-founder Evan Spiegel) had never before graced 11 Wall Street’s trading floor. And, more significantly, it was the first US market debut that issued shares with no voting power. This means owners of the stock have absolutely no say in how the company is run. According to the group’s regulatory filing, a founder’s voting rights will only be diluted if he cuts his stake substantially or, get this, nine months after his death. Clearly, this wasn’t a counter that fund managers Bill Ackman or Nelson Peltz rushed out to buy. Snapchat, if you don’t know, is a wildly popular disappearing-message app, owned by parent Snap Inc, which listed on March 1. It went down like this: IPO shares were priced at US$17 apiece, the stock started trading at $24 (it was oversubscribed more than 10 times), and the company raised $3.4bn, valuing t...
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