By Lisa Beilfuss
Snapchat Inc. disclosed it has offered to sell $650 million of
stock in a private placement, an opportunity for the company and
insiders to profit from the messaging company's popularity.
According to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, more than $537.6 million was sold from the offer and
that $112.4 million remained available. The filing doesn't say how
much the stock was sold for or who the buyers and sellers were.
The filing comes days after Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said he
has a plan for an initial public offering but offered no details
about its timing. Mr. Spiegel also said this week that he has no
desire to field any acquisition offers.
In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd. invested $200 million in Snapchat, a transaction that
valued Snapchat then at $15 billion--marking a significant increase
from previous investments.
in 2014, Snapchat raised funds from at least two investors,
Yahoo Inc. and venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers, in a round of funding that valued the messaging startup at
$10 billion. Other investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst
Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture
Partners, Coatue Management LLC and DST Global.
Snapchat has attracted significant investor attention in part
because of the ephemeral nature of its messages. Its text and photo
messages disappear after a certain amount of time, limiting the
possibility that content will come back to haunt the user.
With its appeal to teens, Snapchat aims to go beyond messaging
and become a next-generation media business. The company has joined
with media brands including ESPN and Yahoo on its Discover service,
which shows news articles and videos that disappear after one
day.
The company began generating revenue this year, as it sold ads
to marketers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Universal
Pictures.
Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com
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