Google Offered to Buy Snapchat Parent for $30 Billion: Report

Search engine giant Google had offered $30 billion (roughly Rs. 1,91,044 crores) to buy Snap - the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat - in 2016 and a similar offer is still open, a media report said.

Google had held informal dialogue with Snap and floated an offer of $30 billion before the latter's last funding round, said a report in Business Insider on Thursday.

"One person claimed Google and Snap also had discussions about a potential buyout just ahead of Snap's initial public offering earlier this year, and that an offer in the ballpark of $30 billion has continued to be on the table since the IPO. Chatter that Snap passed up a chance to sell to Google for at least twice its current value could be especially painful for investors and employees grappling with the company's sinking stock," the report notes.

Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel, who is widely considered as being independent, apparently did not show interest in selling his firm to Google or anybody else.

Spiegel also values running Snap in Southern California and outside of Silicon Valley, where Alphabet - Google's parent company is headquartered.

Earlier, in 2013, Google was rumoured to have been tried to acquire Snapchat for $4 billion after Spiegel refused an offer from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the report added.

Snap is set to announce earnings report next week, its second since going public at $17 just four months ago.

Written with inputs from IANS