An Investment of $15,000 in Snap in 2012 Turned into $34 Million

choi

Georgia Wells, A School's Glorious Mystery: How to Spend IPO Riches. Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2017 (front page).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how ... millions-1501061403

Quote:

(a) "MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif -- Simon Chiu has been wrestling with an unusual dilemma: how the Catholic high school he leads should spend one of the most extraordinary windfalls in Silicon Valley.

A $15,000 investment by Saint Francis High School five years ago turned into $34 million this past March when Snapchat parent Snap Inc went public.

(b) "Saint Francis' bet returned more than 2,200 times the initial investment based on Snap's valuation at the time of IPO.

(c) "The school sold two-thirds of its shares =, for roughly $24 million, in the IPO. The rest is subject to late-July [this year] lockup, after which the shcool is free to sell its remaining shares.

(d) "The stock on Wednesday [July 26] fell 3.5% to $13.49, down 21% from the IPO price, diminishing the value of Saint Francis' remaining holdings.

(e) "Saint Francis' jackpot almost didn't happen. The school began investing in startups in the '90s at the behest of two parents in the venture-capital industry. In 2012, the fund they [the 2 parents] created chose Snapchat at the urging of Barry Eggers, a parent at the school and one of the fund's advisers, who had noticed his children were glued to the app. His firm, Lightspeed Venture Partners, was Snapchat's first investor. The company changed its name to Snap last year.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.