Some people were angry that I exhibited some sympathy towards Evan Spiegel, the billionaire co-founder of Snapchat. Evan recently married Miranda Kerr, and their wedding photos came out earlier this week in Vogue. The wedding seemed half-humble and half-crazy, with Miranda’s “princess gown” by Dior and a huge headpiece-and-veil, combined with the fact that the wedding actually took place in their backyard, and less than fifty people came out for it. There’s no question that I think of Miranda as a golddigger, as she was on the hunt for billionaires before Evan ever came around. But does that make him sympathetic? I don’t know. Probably not. Well, in case you want to have even less sympathy for Evan, please enjoy this story about how Evan is taking a bros-only vacation in Europe as Snapchat’s stock craters.
While Snapchat investors may have swooned over new wedding pictures of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and his blushing bride, Miranda Kerr, they are peeved that Spiegel is said to be floating around on a megayacht in Europe as Snap stock sinks. Spiegel — who in May married Kerr, who wore a Grace Kelly-inspired dress — gave himself an $800 million bonus for taking his company, Snap Inc., public in March at a $33 billion valuation.
But this week, Snap shares hit a fresh low, and the social media company is now worth less than half its peak value. Shares are down nearly 30 percent in the past three months as analysts criticized Snap’s ability to “innovate and improve its ad product this year.”
Meanwhile, sources say Spiegel is rumored to be sailing off the coast of Italy, then possibly on to Greece, with his bro buddies on the 70-meter superyacht Joy, which rents for up to 840,000 euros (about $967,415) for just a week. One incensed Snap investor told Page Six, “Where are the shareholders’ yachts? Evan is chilling on the coast while Snap burns under Facebook competition. He’s feasting on Italian delicacies while shareholders starve. ‘Let them eat losses!’”
The problems for Snap — whose reps didn’t get back to us — are stacking up. The company’s first-quarter revenue and user growth fell short of Wall Street expectations. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg — who reportedly floated a $3 billion takeover offer of Snap in late 2013 and was famously rebuffed by Spiegel — has developed a similar platform to Snapchat on Facebook and Instagram, cutting into Snapchat’s user numbers.
“The death knell for Snapchat was Instagram Stories,” David Pierpont, of digital agency Ansira, told CNBC a week ago. “When we saw that, we said, ‘It’s over.’ ”
As he owns more than 90 million shares of Snap, Spiegel, 27, is one of the world’s youngest billionaires. But the drop has slashed the value of his net worth from $6 billion to around $3.6 billion.
Page Six confirmed today that Evan is still yachting in Europe as the stock continues to crash, and that he has no plans to return to America. He and his bros are yachting for three weeks and nothing will stop them. Personally, I think if you’re heavily invested in Snapchat, you probably should have been aware of what you were getting. That goes for Miranda Kerr too – her husband jets off for a three-week bro-cation just a few months after their wedding? Maybe Miranda isn’t too happy with him either. She thought she was marrying a dude worth $6 billion, not some measly $3.6 billionaire. *scoffs*
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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