Rumors continue to swirl that Google offered to buy Snapchat for $30 billion before its IPO this year and in early 2016 as well.
Neither Google nor Snap would confirm the reports, which came from insiders of both companies, TechCrunch reported. Snap told TechCrunch the rumors were false, and Google would not comment on the reports.
The move might have helped Google break into social media after its Google Plus, Buzz, and Wave failed to catch on in large numbers.
Just the news of Google’s interest in Snapchat drove Snap’s share price up more than 2 percent Thursday along with growth of competitors’ apps that mimicked Snapchat, TechCrunch reported.
Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel has been strongly independent even though its market cap has been cut in half to $15 billion after hitting $30 billion at the time of the May IPO, TechCrunch reported.
The relationship between Google and Snapchat has been close for some time, with Google’s parent company Alphabet’s growth equity fund CapitalG investing $2 billion into Snapchat’s 2016 funding round and Snap being one of Google’s biggest Cloud customers, Business Insider reported.
But those close to both companies aren’t sure a merger would work, with Spiegel’s independence and his ties to running the business from Southern California rather than Silicon Valley where Alphabet is headquartered, BI reported.
There could be benefits for both companies if they did join forces, however. Google would gain a successful social media platform, which it has long sought, and Snap would gain all the capital it needs to acquire smaller platforms and new technology that would keep it on par with Instagram and other competitors, as well as data from Google Search to spur ad revenue and growth.
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