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Snap Files For IPO

Venice, California-based Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has filed for its much anticipated IPO, saying in a filing late Thursday that it is looking to raise up to $3.0 billion in an IPO offering on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol SNAP. The IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Sachs & Co., J. P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and Allen & Company LLC. In the IPO filing, Snap called itself "a camera company" and said that "reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate", and would be one of the largest IPOs in Southern California's technology history. Snap's major backers are Benchmark Capital (12.7 percent of Class A, 22.8 percent of Class B shares before the IPO) and Lightspeed Venture Partners (8.3 percent and 15.0 percent, respectively); founders Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy each hold 21.8% of Class A, 2.0 percent of Class B, and 50% each of Class C stock, in a structure designed to provide Spiegel and Murphy full control of the company even after the IPO.