Snap — the makers of Snapchat — had confidentially filed for its IPO late last year, but it looks like we’ll be getting a look at the inner guts of the company’s financials and workings as early as late next week.
The company will file publicly for its initial public offering late next week, according to a new report from Kara Swisher over at Recode. This is yet another step that brings the company closer to being a publicly-traded company, which will finally give Wall Street a tech IPO in 2017 following AppDynamics being snapped up just before its IPO scheduled for this week. Snap’s IPO will likely set the benchmark for technology companies looking to go public throughout the year.
Following its public filing, Snap will begin its roadshow, where it’ll pitch its case to Wall Street on why it’ll be a strong successful publicly-traded company — and why they should buy into the stock. So we should expect to see the official IPO — and the steps toward it like its pricing — in March. Snap is expected to be worth more than $20 billion in its IPO after projecting that it will generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year.
Filing confidentially let Snap test the waters for what kind of appetite Wall Street would have for the company’s shares. Snap has around 150 million daily active users (as of what we know most-recently) and will be essentially be pitching itself as an advertising platform that either lives alongside Facebook and others, or a complete replacement due to the differences in user behavior.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s pitch, however, seems to have become increasingly difficult. Facebook has frantically sought to tear away its users with products like Facebook and Instagram stories, looking to mimic the company’s features. Snap will have to convince Wall Street that it’s products are better — and its use base more differentiated — from Facebook and its attempts to build those similar features.
This IPO too comes at a time when Facebook has flagged to investors that it is hitting its maximum advertising load, forcing it to move its pitch to a company innovating around new products and platforms like Oculus while its breakneck advertising growth is expected to slow.
A representative from Snap declined to comment.