Google offered $ 30 billion for Snapchat. Twice
According to the publication Business Insider, the management of Google in 2016 offered to buy Snap (the owner of the instant messenger Snapchat) for $ 30 billion. The journalist learned about this from 3 different sources who wanted to remain independent. The deal did not take place due to the rejection of Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snap and CEO of the company.
According to the publication, the conversation about the transaction entered in May 2016, when the team Snap raised round F. Recall, then Spiegel managed to attract $ 1.8 billion investment in the company's valuation of $ 17.5 billion Google offered to buy the company for $ 30 billion, because One of the investors was CapitalG, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
Business Insider journalists note that it is not clear until the end how serious the offer of Google was: such informal conversations often come between companies, especially at stake in important events. So, even before the IPO, Google representatives again came to Spiegel with the same proposal and again received a refusal.
According to one of the sources, Der Spiegel did not want to sell the company and until the end wants to remain independent. However, today Snap shares are falling, and the whole company is estimated at $ 14 billion, losing several billion in capitalization every month.
It makes sense
According to the publication TechCrunch, the deal between the company could really make sense. First, Snap is a major client of Google Cloud services, and the head of the Alphabet Board of Directors, Eric Schmidt, was an adviser to Evan Spiegel. Google's resources in the form of billions of dollars could help Snap both with the advancement and further development of new products.
Google could get the first truly popular social network in its history and work on its further development. In addition, Snap also has its Spectacles glasses, which, unlike Google Glass, have successfully entered the consumer market: the combination of the two teams could help in the further development of the product.
For Spiegel this is not the first deal he refused. Back in 2013, he did not take $ 3 billion from Mark Zuckerberg, then abandoned the proposed $ 4 billion from Google.