According to sources, Snap Inc. plans to publicly file for its much anticipated initial public offering late next week. That means the company will likely go public sometime in March, after a typical road show schedule that lasts nine weeks.
Technically, Snap already did a private filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its IPO late last year, but this will be the first time the public will get a glimpse into its financials and also its core business.
As usual, the timing of the IPO might still change, as is typical in public offerings.
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The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, with a whole string of other banks attached as usual. It will be the first big IPO in quite a while for a leading tech company and is more interesting because it will not be a victory for Silicon Valley. Instead, co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel created and grew the Snap to huge levels from Southern California, where the company is headquartered.
Sources said the five-year-old company's valuation could reach $25 billion, but interest in the IPO could garner more than that if demand is high.
Snap's main product, Snapchat, has become a sensation with a young demographic with its initial ephemeral messaging product. But its innovative series of new offerings has solidified it as the most fast forward social media company around.
But twitchy teens — like my 14-year old for whom Snapchat is a digital must — are not its only audience, going forward. Sources said that Spiegel told a gathering at the Morgan Stanley conference last year that half of its new users were over the age of 25.
Snap's success has had reverberations across the tech landscape, so much so that Facebook has essentially been copying its products, including Snapchat Stories, to keep up. Facebook, as most know, once tried to buy the company, for $3 billion dollars several year ago, an offer Spiegel declined.
A Snap spokesperson had no comment.
—By Kara Swisher, Recode.net.
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