Chris Handman has resigned as Snap’s general counsel, TheWrap has confirmed.
Handman announced his departure in an email to the company’s employees last week, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He will remain with the Venice Beach-based company as an adviser.
“We are grateful for all of Chris’s hard work and contributions to Snap. He has built an incredible legal team, played an integral role in taking the company public, and has been a valued member of Snap’s leadership,” said Snap in a statement shared with TheWrap. “We wish him all the best; he will always be an important part of the Snap family.”
The Yale Law School grad had been with Snap since 2014, serving as CEO Evan Spiegel’s top legal advisor. Hardman joined Snap from law firm Hogan Lovells, where he was a partner at its Washington, D.C. office.
Dom Perella, Snap’s deputy general counsel, will fill Handman’s void until the company pegs a permanent replacement.
Snap — the parent company of Snapchat, the disappearing messaging app with more than 160 million users — has had a rocky few months following its IPO. After an initial jump in share price from $17 to $27, the stock has floundered, with investors concerned over its middling growth. Snap’s shares closed at an all-time low of $13.89 on Tuesday.
At the same time, Snap’s chief competitor, Instagram, has continued to mimic and often blatantly copy its best features, including Stories, Snapchat’s 24-hour bulletin-board for posting pictures and videos. Instagram’s Stories now laps Snapchat’s daily users, with more than 250 million users.
On the horizon for Snap is a critical Q2 earnings report in August.
7 Rad Projects Elon Musk Has Worked On (Photos)
Elon Musk has been at the forefront of Silicon Valley innovation for two decades. The South Africa-born entrepreneur has been linked to a number of high-profile, intriguing ventures... so let's take a look.
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Pay Pal
Musk made his initial fortune thanks to PayPal, which he sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. He made a cool $165 million off the deal.
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Tesla Motors
Instead of buying an island and living the high life after the PayPal sell, Musk went to work on getting the world off its dependency on oil. He founded Tesla Motors (now Tesla Inc.) in 2003, taking over an old Toyota-General Motors manufacturing plant in the Bay Area. The slick electric cars can travel 250 miles without a charge and sell for upwards of $100,000. Its "mass" car, the Model 3, is due out in 2018.
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Space X
Perhaps the project most important to Musk is SpaceX. Founded in 2002, the rocket company has worked with NASA on several launches. SpaceX made history when it developed "recycled" rockets that are able to be launched, landed and reused. Even more ambitious, Musk wants to send manned missions to Mars within the next decade... and colonize the red planet.
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Hyperloop
Musk frequently travels back and forth between NorCal and SoCal, and he wants to do it quickly. Enter Hyperloop, where passengers will be put in pods and shot through tubes connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles at speeds of up to 760 miles per hour. Musk sketched the concept in 2013, and it's now being pursued by a group in L.A. full-time.
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Neuralink
Musk is also big on artificial intelligence and hopes to find a way to directly connect humans to machines. That's where his Neuralink comes in. Co-founded by Musk in 2016, the company aims to integrate our minds with AI advancements via chip implants.
Via @nbashaw on Twitter
The Boring Company
The Boring Company aims to alleviate traffic by building an underground network of tunnels. Cars would be able to latch on to giant sleds and zip through tunnels at 125 mph or passengers can take futuristic glass buses if they want.
The Boring Company
SolarCity
Founded by Musk's cousins in 2006, SolarCity is the second-largest provider of solar panels in the USA. Musk owned 22 percent of its shares when Tesla bought-out the company for more than $2.5 billion in 2016.
Tesla Inc.
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The real-life Tony Stark is the poster boy for Silicon Valley entrepreneurship
Elon Musk has been at the forefront of Silicon Valley innovation for two decades. The South Africa-born entrepreneur has been linked to a number of high-profile, intriguing ventures... so let's take a look.