Snap’s IPO Roadshow Message: We’re the Next Facebook, Not the Next Twitter
When Snap Inc. goes on the road next year to market its initial public offering, it will be touting more than its popular virtual-messaging service.
Evan Spiegel, the company’s 26-year-old founder, is expected to figure prominently in conversations with investors during the marketing process, known as a roadshow, according to people familiar with the matter. Snap’s IPO bankers and executives are planning to portray Mr. Spiegel as a visionary who knows how to create products for his coveted millennial peer group, the people said.
The pitch is designed to convince investors that the young company can evolve from a messaging platform into a content and media powerhouse that could one day eclipse its hoped-for $20 billion to $25 billion IPO valuation. The idea is to put the company in a class with Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., whose shares are up sharply in recent years, while differentiating it from Twitter Inc., which has languished since its 2013 IPO.
Snap also is expected to focus on its “stickiness,” or time spent on its disappearing-message app, and its share of the highly coveted 18-to-34 demographic, according to people familiar with the pitch, which echoes a message the company has delivered to potential investors in meetings that began last month.
wsj.com
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