Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Declined $30 Billion Google Buyout

Snapchat has been in the news a lot lately, from dwindling share prices to controversial privacy invading features. Now a story has surfaced that massive search giant Google floated an offer to buy Snap (the instant-photo sharing app’s parent company) for a whopping $30 billion.

There was never a formal offer, but Google apparently sent an offer to the company more than once, firstly before Snap’s latest funding round in 2016 and again right before their IPO earlier this year. The offer even stood after the company went public. These reports come from Business Insider’s Alex Heath, who said that the multi-billion dollar bid was an open-secret within Snap HQ.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel showed no signs in selling his company. This stance came despite the company’s valuation fluctuating wildly, dipping down to $15 billion and back up to $30 billion in a short timespan. Spiegel and his other co-founder Bobby Murphy are notoriously hardheaded, configuring their voting rights on the board to give themselves full control of company direction.

After news of the once-potential $30 billion buyout broke, Snap’s stock rose 2.3 per cent. Funny how after weeks of decline, a rumor of how much money the company could have made pushes them back up a little bit. Snap and Google have been buddies for a while, investing in one another’s technology and being advisers to key company decisions.

The rise of Instagram’s stories feature has soured Snap’s meteoric ascent among North Americans (especially young consumers), and left the company reeling from a financial standpoint. Even a dancing hotdog can’t make this refused offer look like a good idea.