In 2013, your eighth favorite app Snapchat baffled the world by turning down a buyout offer from Facebook reportedly worth more than $3 billion. The move, largely gutted by industry professionals as a misfire, is especially bold (dumb?) when paired with the fact that Snapchat then purchased the eyeglass video camera company Vergence Labs for $15 million.
Now, internal financial documents appear to confirm that turning down Facebook's offer was indeed a terrible idea. Obtained by Gawker, the documents show that Snapchat is currently struggling to achieve profitability, despite introducing new avenues of income over the past year. Between January and November of 2014, Snapchat brought in just $3 million in revenue while losing a gigantic $128 million:
Though presumed revenue from Snapchat's recently introduced Discover feature, which allows various media outlets to publish microbroadcasts, is not included in these figures, their potential for profit seems just as dismal. According to Bloomberg, Snapchat's ad rates are "declining rapidly" in the wake of an almost immediate dropoff in Discover popularity following its initial release.
R.I.P. Snapchat? Not quite. The company is still lounging comfortably on a bed made of $300 million in on-hand cash:
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