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Thursday, 11 May 2017

Snap takes it on the chin after maiden earnings fall short

Take investors’ money, don’t give them disclosure, don’t execute — and pay the price. You may recall our rather intense dislike of Snap, the maker of the app Snapchat (which, for whatever reason, describes itself as “a camera company”). That has nothing to do with our collective inability to figure out the app beloved by teens, and everything with the company at IPO having issued a prospectus that gave investorsno say on how the company is run and no promise of profits … At least 10 of the 12 investment banks that have signed up to underwrite the Snap IPO weren’t even allowed a peek at the S-1 ahead of it being filed.” One observer even described it as “the most shareholder-unfriendly governance in an initial public offering, ever.” (We dissected the prospectus here back in February when was in mid-IPO.)

Well, the chickens came home to roost yesterday: The company’s shares plunged by nearly 25% in after-hours trading as the company missed on revenues and user growth and turned in a bigger bottom-line loss than expected as it reported its first earnings as a publicly traded company. The company, stockwatchers believe, is suffering because Facebook is succeeding in copying Snapchat’s features. “Overall I feel we have executed well on our priorities for this quarter,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said during his earnings call yesterday. If you have the stomach, read one of the poorest earnings releases we’ve seen in ages. Business Insider has more.

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