, Columnist
Snapchat's IPO Aids Other Overheated Startups
Investors express appetite for fast-growing but unprofitable companies with some serious question marks.
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The smart-money types carefully examined a company with slowing user growth, a nascent business model and stock that permits zero influence from shareholders and said: Yep. Gimme some of that Snapchat.
Parent company Snap Inc. on Wednesday sold its first shares of stock to the public at $17 a share, or a market value of about $24 billion, including outstanding equity. It's an incredible valuation for a company that has been generating revenue for only about two years. Of course it's nearly impossible to tell whether Snapchat IPO buyers will be rewarded handsomely for their coin-toss bet. Shares could fall on their face on the first day of trading Thursday.