Coin News

Snapchat will deliver its first progress report a public company on Wednesday, but it's still a mystery whether the man investors want to hear from will show up. 

Evan Spiegel, the reclusive 26-year-old Snap CEO, is considered the product visionary who turned the disappearing messages app into a global phenomenon. And with Snapchat facing intense competition from Facebook, and its stock trading below the opening price of its February IPO, Spiegel is the man Wall Street is betting on to lead the company to victory.

"People invested based on Evan’s product genius," said Eric Kim, a partner at Goodwater Capital.

Investors want to get a sense of who Spiegel is, what his demeanor is like and what his vision for the product is.

Spiegel is still a relatively unfamiliar figure in the eyes of investors. When Snapchat was a privately held startup, Spiegel didn't take the stage at flashy product launches, as many of his peers do, and he made relatively few public appearances. Compare that to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently on a tour of the US, with photos of his various stops regularly posted on his profile page.

Since Snap's initial public offering, Spiegel appears to have done only one interview to the Los Angeles Times immediately following his IPO despite public backlash against remarks he supposedly made about India and Spain.

Wednesday's earnings conference call will provide Spiegel with the first chance to lift a little bit of the veil on who he is and what he's thinking about the future of Snapchat, especially in wake of Facebook coming at the company with guns blazing. The question is whether Spiegel sticks to his under-the-radar image or decides to address investors head-on. 

Spiegel could skip out on the call altogether, leaving COO Imran Khan and CFO Drew Vollero who run the business side of things to handle the investor inquisition. 

Snap Inc. declined to comment on whether Spiegel would be on the investor call.  

Under attack

While some high-profile CEOs like the late Apple founder Steve Jobs and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos have eschewed investor calls, many tech CEOs today carry the mantle of explaining their business to the world, including Snap's rival Mark Zuckerberg. 

Yet nothing about Spiegel's history suggests he's willing to follow tradition for tradition's sake.

The greatest example is how Snap conducted its IPO in February. 

Instead of offering traditional voting shares, Snapchat's parent company only offered non-voting shares to the public as part of its initial offering. The non-voting shares and Snap's corporate structure set it up so that Spiegel and his cofounder Bobby Murphy retain control of the company despite its public status.

Now that Spiegel's brainchild is about to issue its first earnings report on Wednesday, Spiegel has a chance to share his vision for the product with the world should he choose to and lay out how it will continue to fight back against Facebook's attempts to thwart its user growth. Snap, however, has already said that it's not issuing foreword looking guidance about its business.

A Spiegel no-show on Wednesday would be "disappointing," said Eric Kim of Goodwater Capital, a firm that specializes in consumer company analysis. Kim believes that Spiegel has to be on the call because it's the product under attack, not its business financials or ad business.

"I think there’s so many questions about product," Kim said. "The financials are straight forward: It’s not a profitable company but it’s growing fast." 

Specifically, Kim wants to know how Snap plans to address the moves Facebook has made to claw away Snap's userbase. In a recent survey by Kim's firm, Facebook had increased its share of the "Stories" market when it cloned one of Snap's most popular features. Meanwhile, Snap's share had stayed flat.

RBC's Mark Mahaney also found mixed results on Snapchat's traffic trends. In Mahaney's report, he noted that Comscore data showed that total time spent in the app had declined, although its average monthly unique visitors had increased in the first quarter. 

Investors bought into Snapchat's vision during the IPO roadshow and Spiegel was there to make the presentation and answer questions. But the competition from Facebook means Spiegel needs to make an appearance to explain what happens next with the product, Kim says.

"Maybe pre-Facebook Stories yes, but post Facebook Stories no," Kim said about whether Spiegel could afford to not lead the call. "When he [Spiegel] went public, Facebook didn't have this product feature that went after his core user base." 

While it remains to be seen how the stock will react to a potential Spiegel no-show, it shouldn't surprise investors. After all, they've already invested in the young CEO's vision for the product when they bought non-voting shares of a company he majority controls. 

SEE ALSO: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-could-be-500000-by-2030-first-snapchat-investor-says-2017-3

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: SCOTT GALLOWAY: Why you should worry about a company if its CEO is in a fashion magazine

[…]

The post Bitcoin Price Soars to All-Time High Beyond $1,750 appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The president of the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis took aim at bitcoin today, criticizing the ease at which new cryptocurrencies can be created.

Source

[…]

The post Altcoin Surge Ends; Bitcoin Continues to Shine toward $1,800 appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post Altcoin Surge Ends; Bitcoin Continues to Shine toward $1,800 appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post (+) Daily Analysis: Bitcoin Tops $1800 as Stocks Drift To New Highs appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post Bitcoin Market Cap Nears $30 Billion appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Australia's latest national budget eliminates a goods-and-services tax on bitcoin purchases and expenditures.

Source

[…]

The post Bitcoin is Improving Lives of Women Farmers in Zimbabwe appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

[…]

The post India is Preparing Bitcoin Regulations, Ban Unlikely: Report appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The price of bitcoin continued its streak of gains today, setting a new record high that found its value rising 70% on the year.

Source

Bitcoin seems unstoppable right now, topping $1,700 for the first time on Tuesday.

The cryptocurrency trades up 3.45% at $1,720.82 a coin, as trade grinds higher for the 16th time in 18 sessions. It has gained nearly 50% during its current streak.

Tuesday's gain comes without any real catalyst as traders await the US Securities and Exchange Commission's ruling on whether or not it will reverse its decision to reject the Winklevoss twins' exchange traded fund.

Back in March, the SEC rejected two bitcoin ETFs, saying it "is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest."

Bitcoin has shrugged off China restricting trade, the SEC's rejecting of two bitcoin ETFs, and threats from developers to create a "hard fork" that would split the cryptocurrency in two to post an 81% gain so far in 2017. 

There has been some good news as well. 

At the beginning of April, Japan's financial regulators said that bitcoin was now a legal payment method in the country, and days later Russia said it would consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2018.

Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010, aside from 2014. 

SEE ALSO: The price of Bitcoin just hit an all new high — here's how easy it is to buy your first one

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These are the small, agile new aircraft carriers meant to take F-35s into battle

Here is what you need to know.

South Korea goes to the polls. Barring a major upset, liberal Moon Jae-in, who is open to dialogue with North Korea, is expected to win, Reuters says.

UK retail sales bounce back. Data released by the Retail Sales Monitor from the British Retail Consortium on Tuesday showed that retail sales for the month of April surged 5.6% versus a year ago after slipping 1% in March.

Bitcoin tops $1,700. The cryptocurrency trades up 4.3% at $1,728 a coin. It's up 81% so far this year.

Jeff Gundlach doesn't like US stocks. Speaking at the Sohn Investment conference, Gundlach, the founder of Double Line Capital, told attendeesto to go long the iShares Emerging Markets ETF and short the S&P 500.

Hertz tanks after missing big on earnings. The rental car company lost an adjusted $1.61 per share, missing the $0.84 loss that Wall Street was anticipating by a wide margin. Share tumbled as much as 15% in extended trading on Monday.

SPONSOR CONTENT BY ORACLE
CFOs can transform their organization into an analytics powerhouse with the right talent, tools, and strategy. Learn more.

Sturm Ruger says gun demand slowed. The gun maker said sell-through of its products from independent distributors to retailers fell 7% after seeing a strong run up ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The CEO of Qantas Airlines took a pie to the face while giving a speech. CEO Alan Joyce was talking about his airlines' recent decision to begin non-stop flights from London to Perth when a man ran up to the podium and pied him in the face, City AM says. "If there are any more pies, can you get it over with now?" Joyce asked.

Stock markets are higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+1.3%) led the gains in Asia and Germany's DAX (+0.5%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed near 2,400.

Earnings reporting remains heavy. Allergan, Office Depot, and Valeant report ahead of the opening bell while Disney, Priceline, and Yelp are among the names releasing their quarterly results after markets close.

US economic is light. JOLTS Job Openings will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.39% its highest since the end of March.

Join the conversation about this story »

[…]

The post Bitcoin Bill Payments in Australia Rises 3300% in 3 Years appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

At least one hedge fund sees the potential for big price gains should bitcoin’s scaling debate ultimately be overcome.

Source