Snapchat, err Snap Inc., just made the papers for its long-awaited initial public offering appear.
The ephemeral mobile storytelling app is going public, a move that will raise $3 billion and open up the books of the secretive company. No valuation for the company as a whole is mentioned, but the company is predicted to still be one of the biggest tech IPOs ever. Back in 2012, Facebook was seeking a valuation of $5 billion.
The filing offers one of the biggest concrete indicators of Snapchat's business. It brought in $404 million in 2016, up from $58.7 million in 2015.
The stock will trade under the ticker SNAP on the New York Stock Exchange. The underwriters are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, along with J.P. organ, Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Allen & Company LLC.
With Thursday's filing, Snapchat stock will begin trading in March. For now, CEO Evan Spiegel and his executive team will go on a roadshow to explain the company to Wall Street.
Snapchat is known for being quite a secretive company, but now, with going public, we'll be able to learn a lot more.
For example, the company's mission: "Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Our product empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together."
But more important, how the company views its future. One big takeaway, there may no profits -- as in no profits, ever.
"We have incurred operating losses in the past, expect to incur operating losses in the future, and may never achieve or maintain profitability," the filing reads.
Snap's IPO has been a long time coming. Back in May 2015, Spiegel got investors' hopes up when he said, "We need to IPO. We have a plan to do that," at the Recode Code Conference.
In November, shortly before the release of its video-camera glasses Spectacles, Snapchat rebranded to Snap Inc., with the IPO in mind: "You can search Snapchat or Spectacles for the fun stuff and leave Snap Inc. for the Wall Street crowd :)," a blog post read.
Snap had quietly filed its papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last year, since under the JOBS Act, a company making less than $1 billion annually in revenue can do so.
The public filing preemptively came with a pretty big media endorsement. The New York Times will soon join Snapchat Discover, the app's network of media outlets and other curated stories (Mashable is a Discover partner).
The full S-1 filing is available here.
Topics Snapchat Social Media
