What a day.
Snap Inc. solidified its place in tech IPO history with an opening day that sent the company’s share price to $24.51 a share by the end of trading for a market value of about $28 billion. The long-awaited offering had been met with all matter of speculation with some saying the shares were overpriced, but investors didn’t shy away and seized on the opportunity.
The company on Thursday opened at nearly $24 per share. It peaked at about $26 in the afternoon before dipping back down.
Snap is the parent of the Snapchat app and the more recently released camera-enabled sunglasses called Spectacles, which initially were sold through pop-up vending machines and more recently became available in its own online store.
Snap said in its IPO filing its sales rose 600 percent to $404.5 million last year with a loss of $514.6 million.
On Wednesday, it announced it had priced its 200 million available shares at $17, raising $3.4 billion in its IPO.
By comparison, here is the performance of other tech IPOs in more recent years on their opening day:
- Alibaba Group, raised $25 billion in 2014
- Facebook Inc., $16 billion in 2012
- Twitter Inc., $2.09 billion in 2013
- Google, $1.9 billion in 2004
- Groupon, $700 million in 2011
- LinkedIn Corp., $350 million in 2011