Facebook Offered Over $3 Billion to Buy Snapchat, Tip Leaked Sony Emails

The complete story behind the reported Facebook $3 billion offer rejection by Snapchat appears to have been let out of the bag, thanks to the Sony email hack.

If the leaked emails (via BusinessInsider) between Snapchat and Sony Entertainment are to be believed, it seems that the Facebook offer was a lot more than $3 billion.

According to BuisnessInsider report, "Malcolm Gladwell sent an email to Snapchat board member (and Sony Entertainment CEO) Michael Lynton asking if the company was crazy to turn down $3 billion."

To which Lynton replied saying that, "if you [Gladwell] knew the real number you would book us all a suite at Bellvue."

The report further noted, citing an email from Mitch Lasky (a Snapchat board member), that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel would have received $1 billion if the Facebook deal had gone through.

"Evan proposed a new deal today to Tencent and DST that includes $40MM in secondary for him and Bobby. Never told me ... in fact told me the exact opposite. When I confronted him about it, he said, 'well I just turned down a billion from Zuck'" noted the report.

The Sony email hack also reveals that Snapchat is interested in launching a music label.

According to a leaked email (via BuisnessInsider) allegedly written by Sony's President of Global Digital Business, Dennis Kooker to Michael Lynton, Spiegel met with Kooker, on June 5, where he had shown interest in launching a music label for Snapchat, which could also work well with existing features in the app.

"He thinks every music service in the market is shit and he wants to be a curator, [...] He doesn't want to build a music service but he would like to have a record label so he could focus on the artists that he wants to use the platform to promote. He also wants to participate in the upside that he will create by promoting them on the platform," Kooker allegedly wrote in that mail.