Would have the guts to turn down a multi-billion-dollar deal that netted you a personal fortune of $750 million dollars? We're not sure we could say no (hello, early retirement), but that's exactly what Evan Spiegel, the cofounder and CEO of Snapchat, did.
Last year, Spiegel stunned the tech community — and the world at large — by refusing a $3 billion offer from Facebook. Seeing as Snapchat, while a huge hit with the world’s teen population, hasn’t actually made any money yet, it seemed like a surprising outcome.
But, not for Spiegel. In a cover story with
Forbes
the 23-year-old explains: “There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this…I think trading that for some short-term gain isn’t very interesting.” And, it seems the situation may have had a bit of a David and Goliath-story to it. Spiegel reveals that in 2012, when Mark Zuckerberg first started pursuing Snapchat, he tried to unnerve them by revealing Facebook’s plans to launch its identical poke app a few days later. "It was basically like, 'We're going to crush you,'" says Spiegel.
Flash forward to January 2014, and the Snapchat team have raised another $50 million to take the company’s value to a reported $2 billion, not to mention the Facebook’s poke app hasn’t been quite the success it was expected to be. And, while the jury is still out on the real impact Snapchat will make on the tech landscape, we're looking forward to the next chapter in this Silicon Valley drama. (Mashable)
Photo: Via Mashable.
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