Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc, had a tremendous first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange – its shares surged 44% to close at $24.48 on Thursday, considerably higher than its initial public offering price of $17 on Wednesday, reported CNBC. Snap Inc raised $3.4 billion (approximately Rs 21,477 crore) in its IPO, higher than the $3-billion deal Facebook had offered to acquire the company in 2013.
Over 200 million shares were traded in the IPO. Its shares shot up to $26.05 at one point, which raised its market value of $29.1 billion, reported Reuters. It’s closing price of $24.48 bring Snap’s market value to $28.3 billion (approximately Rs 1.79 lakh crore). The company had earlier said that the proceeds from the IPO will be used for corporate purposes, including acquisition.
Snap saw a great debut at the stock exchange despite having lost more than $500 million last year and reports suggesting that its user growth has slowed down. The firm posted a net loss of $515 million (approximately Rs 3,500 crore) and recorded $404 million (around Rs 2,700 crore) in revenues in 2016.
Headed by Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy, Snap also faces immense competition from Instagram and WhatsApp, which introduced a story feature similar to one offered by Snapchat. Snap’s cost of revenue per user has been rising and has exceeded those of Twitter and Facebook, reported Yahoo Finance.
In 2013, when Twitter went public, its shares surged 93% when they opened at the New York Stock Exchange. However, Twitter stocks are now trading at $15.84, down from their IPO price.
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