Snapchat Plans Music Feature, Acquired QR Scan.me For $50M And Vergence Eyeglass Cam For $15M,
Leaked emails from the Sony Pictures hack have uncovered several acquisitions made by Snapchat, as well as plans for a music feature and meetings to discuss partnerships with Twitter.
According to emails between Snapchat, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, and Snapchat board member Mitch Lasky, Snapchat bought a QR scanning and iBeacon startup called Scan.me for $14 million in cash, $3 million in restricted stock units, and $33 million in Class B common Snapchat stock. It also acquired Vergence Labs, makers of an eyeglass video camera, for $11 million in cash and $4 million in stock.
Snapchat also apparently paid $10 million in cash and $20 million in stock and bonuses for AddLive, the startup Snapchat bought to power its real-time video chat feature but didn’t have the price for.
Other info in the emails include that Snapchat has recently been working on a music feature, and CEO Evan Spiegel has grand aspirations to promote artists through his app and capitalize on their success. Snapchat negotiated with Vevo for a feature that sounds like it would bring music video viewing inside Snapchat in August, but hit a snag over the revenue sharing on advertising. Valleywag reported earlier today that emails indicate the acquisition deal from Facebook that Snapchat turned down was more than $3 billion.
Scan.me
Snapchat’s Steve Hwang emailed Lasky and Lynton telling them the acquisition of Scan.me is “Super secret as usual (won’t be announced publicly)”, that the company “specializes in QR scanning/creation as well as iBeacon tech”, and that “7 engineers from Utah, who will be moving out in the coming weeks.”
Scan.me acquisition consent form sent to Snapchat board members
Scan price details
Scan.me acquisition confirmation