Secret Snapchat Filing Suggests Major IPO on Its Way

Two years ago, Alibaba stunned the tech world, and the stock market in general, with the biggest initial public offering ever valued at $168 billion. Now Snapchat—technically Snap Inc., as of September—looks to want in on the mega-IPO game: Sources tell Reuters the company has confidentially filed for an IPO, possibly as early as March and with a value between $20 billion and $25 billion (the Wall Street Journal last month said it could actually surpass $25 billion). The last major tech IPO: Facebook in 2012, valued at $81 billion.

As TechCrunch notes, the filing doesn't mean the IPO will definitely happen, just that Snapchat "is going through the motions to get out there." Companies pulling in less than $1 billion in revenue can file in secret for an IPO under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act to "to quietly test investor appetite" while still keeping their financials out of sight, Reuters notes. (More Snapchat stories.)