With shares of Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. sinking to new lows following its lackluster second quarter earnings report, CEO Evan Spiegel made it clear he’s not jumping ship just yet.
“Bobby and I will not be selling any of our shares this year,” said Spiegel on its earnings call, referring to Snap Chief Tech Officer Bobby Murphy. Spiegel went on to say the two execs “believe deeply in the long-term success of Snap.”
It’s a message Snap’s battered investors desperately wanted to hear. Shares of Snap dropped more than 13 percent to new all-time lows of about $11.75 in after hours trading on Thursday. And with Snap’s shareholder lockup period ending, nervous investors have been anticipating an influx of Snap stock for
Spiegel and Murphy both own more than 200 million shares of Snap — accounting for about 44 percent of all shares when the company went public in March.
But tepid user growth and an inability to generate revenue from its followers has sent Snap investors fleeing since its much-anticipated debut on Wall Street. This trend continued on Thursday, with Snap adding only 7 million daily active users in the second quarter — a million less than it gained in its first quarter.
Spiegel publicly announcing he’ll hold off on selling shares mirrors Mark Zuckerberg’s move in 2012, when Facebook’s CEO committed to not unloading stock for a year. Facebook went on to reinvent its mobile platform and now only trails Google in online advertising dominance. As user growth remains a concern for investors, it’ll be imperative for Snap to continue building out its tools for advertisers and increase its revenue.