Snap and burn

2 February 2017 By Richard Beales Follow @richardbeales1

The photo app aiming to raise $3 bln says it’s “a camera company” while struggling GoPro claimed it was in media. Snap’s cash burn is not to be confused with the wearable camera firm’s pre-IPO profit, though. And at least GoPro gave investors second-class voting rights, not none.

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Snap, owner of popular messaging-service Snapchat, made many of its financial details public for the first time on Feb. 2 as it prepares to raise up to $3 billion in an initial public offering.

The Los Angeles-based company said it generated $404 million in sales in 2016, up from $59 million in 2015. It reported a net loss of $515 million in 2016, up from a net loss of $373 million in 2015. Snap's operations burnt over $300 million of cash in 2015 and more than $600 million in 2016.

Snap expects to go public as soon as March and could be valued at between $20 billion and $25 billion, sources familiar with the situation have said. That would give the company the richest valuation in a U.S. technology IPO since Facebook's in 2012.

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