Evan Spiegel is probably having a tougher morning than you right about now. The 26-year-old wunderkind and CEO of Snap Inc., the parent company of disappearing messaging app Snapchat, has seen his net worth drop nearly $1 billion since the underwhelming release of his company’s Q1 earnings report on Wednesday afternoon.
An hour into Wall Street trading on Thursday, shares of Snap are down about 20 percent, falling from a close of $23 on Wednesday to $18.50. At the time of Snap’s initial public offering in March, Spiegel owned nearly 211 million shares of Snap, meaning he’s about $950 million less rich on paper as he eats breakfast this morning.
If misery loves company in this case, Spiegel can find comfort in knowing his co-founder and Snap Chief Technology Officer Bobby Murphy is feeling the pain as well; Murphy owned the same amount of stock as Spiegel did at the company’s IPO, with both men accounting for slightly less than 30 percent of all Snap shares.
Also Read: Snap Loses $2.2 Billion in Q1, Stock Plunges 19 Percent
Snap’s share price is taking a massive hit after reporting $2.2 billion in Q1 loses — with nearly $2 billion of that figure coming in the form of stock-based compensation to employees. And perhaps more importantly to investors, Snapchat’s user growth is lagging, growing only five percent in Q1 to 166 million daily active users; for comparison, Instagram Stories, its chief rival, recently reported 200 million daily active users.
The company’s earnings call on Wednesday afternoon did little to stem the damage, with it offering no forward guidance on financials and little-to-no information on Snap’s plans for original content, advertising growth or emerging markets.
The good news for Spiegel and Murphy, though, is that they’re still worth about $4 billion, even after this right hook to the chin.
Dani Mathers' Snapchat Scandal and 7 Other Playboy Playmate Controversies (Photos)
-
Getty Images
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Getty Images
