Will Snapchat Make it to the Billion-dollar Club?
Possible funding by Alibaba Group to value the company at $10 billion
Snapchat Inc., the maker of a mobile application for disappearing photo messages, is in talks with investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd for funding that may value the company at $10 billion, according to Bloomberg. On completion of the possible funding, Snapchat would join an elite group of technology startups with a valuation of over $10 billion. Snapchat’s mobile application enables users to send photos and messages that vanish within seconds of being read. The valuation of about $10 billion is more than three times the price that Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg was willing to pay last year.
US Markets Post Narrow Gains
Better-than-expected GDP growth fails to prop up markets
The US market narrowed its gains during mid-day trading on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, erasing the earlier weekly gains. While investors were waiting for a statement from the Federal Reserve, the US reported better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the second quarter. The US reported a GDP growth of 4% on an annual rate above the expected rate of 3%, with personal consumption increasing 1.9% in Q2. Also, the Fed has announced that it will continue trimming the size of its bond-buying program slowly, with the program likely to end this October.