Snap’s Spending Spree

Snap may not be the most prolific buyer of startups, but it’s lapping the field when it comes to deal size. In the last two years, the company spent more money than either Twitter or Facebook did in the same period before their IPOs, on just a handful of deals.

Snap has acquired four companies of note between 2015 and 2016, according to its IPO filing, for a total purchase price, including performance-based contingencies, of $631 million in cash and stock. Twitter, in contrast, struck 22 deals worth $520 million in the two and a half years before its 2013 IPO. Facebook lagged both, spending only $68 million on acquisitions of companies in 2011 and an undefined but small amount before that, its filing said. (See bar chart above.)