Snapchat's Evan Spiegel Is $1 Billion Poorer Than Before IPO
On March 2, Snapchat made its stock market debut, with an initial public offering priced at $17 and shares rising to $24.48 by the end of the trading day.
In the process, cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy made a combined $2.8 billion, becoming the only self-made billionaires in the world under the age of 30 to own a publicly traded company, according to Forbes.
And Spiegel, who the magazine had previously said was worth $4 billion, was suddenly $1.4 billion richer.
It's been all downhill from there.
Since its IPO, Snapchat shares have slid more than 20%; there have been only a handful of days on which its stock price has not declined. Shares were trading Thursday morning at $13.48.
That puts Spiegel's current worth at $3.1 billion, Forbes says — lower than before Snapchat went public. And it could fall even further.
On Thursday afternoon, Snapchat will issue its second-ever earnings report. Analysts are expecting a loss of $366 million, or 30 cents a share, FactSet data show — wider than the company's loss of $115.9 million a year ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Wall Street will expect to see continued user growth and increased engagement despite Snap's arguments that it's prioritizing quality over quantity," Axios media reporter Sara Fischer writes. "However, user growth looks grim for Snapchat, which has seen stagnant growth in recent quarters since Instagram launched a copycat 'Stories' feature."