Investing.com – Snapchat reportedly paid between $250 and $350 million to acquire social map app Zenly even as its parent company Snap’s shares continued to languish near its initial public offering (IPO) price.
Snap reportedly picked up the Paris-based startup last May, according to sources cited by TechCrunch, ahead of announcing its own “Snap Map” on Wednesday.
“If your friends are sharing their location with you, their Actionmoji will appear on the Map,” Snap said when announcing its new service.
“Actionmojis only update when you open Snapchat,” the company explained.
TechCrunch suggested that the self-proclaimed “camera company” may have implemented the strategy to have an app for meeting up with friends that could let Snapchat own the path to doing the things worth capturing in a photo.
The report arrived just one week after Snap shares closed at $17.00 in a return to what was its IPO price.
After Snap’s March debut on the stock market, its shares had soared as high as $29.44 in what had been the most hyped technological listing in years.
However, investor enthusiasm appeared to have run its course with many Wall Street analysts critiquing its high valuation, especially in light of being a tech firm that has itself admitted that it may never see profits.
While waiting for the U.S. market open on Thursday, Snap’s shares (NYSE:SNAP) closed at $17.27 in the prior session, about 1.6% higher than its initial IPO price.