Snap is preparing to step out into the public markets and has hired MS and GS for a potential equity offering as soon as the first quarter of 2017.
Yet for all of the service’s phenomenal growth, Snapchat’s parent must still demonstrate to potentially skittish stock market investors that it has a path to profitability if its offering is to soar, analysts say. “Investors aren’t willing to buy growth at all costs,” Kathleen Smith, a co-founder of Renaissance Capital, said.