NBCUniversal invested $500 mln in Snap Inc during IPO

It closed Thursday at $24.48, 44 percent higher than the original $17 offering price. They were priced above the $14-$16 range Snap originally had targeted.

His suggestion is that Snap look at both Twitter and Facebook to understand the challenges it will face as a social network with the responsibilities of a public company.

Snap, Inc. Is now valued at $33 billion dollars, which puts it on par with Target and the Marriott Hotel chain.

Snap is classified as an “emerging-growth company” under the 2012 federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.

“Investors can’t have the same level of confidence that they would in other companies”, said Alan Brett, head of corporate governance ratings research at MSCI Inc.in London. Goldman Sachs will be the stabilization agent, ensuring the first day of trading goes smoothly.

A Bay Area high school that counts itself among Snap Inc.’s first investors stands to win big after a booming initial public offering and first-day trading. But ordinary investors looking to buy Snap’s IPO aren’t guaranteed to share the same outcome.

Despite a almost seven-fold increase in revenue, the Los Angeles-based company’s net loss jumped 38 percent a year ago.

With that continued IPO boom, Snap has avoided the curse of Facebook (FB, Tech30), but maybe not the curse of Twitter (TWTR, Tech30).

Demand for the shares was almost 12 times oversubscribed – and this from a company that not only has never made a profit (and lost $500m last year). Facebook at its IPO had 845 million monthly active users and 483 million daily active users.

But despite Snapchat’s popularity, user growth has slowed recently. (Snap made Spectacles available for purchase online late last month after the device was initially only available at pop-up vending machines). The company’s Snapchat platform is producing short-form digital series tied to “Saturday Night Live” and “The Voice”, and E!