Facebook offered to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion in 2013.
The reported offer emerged in November 2013, when Snapchat was still a rapidly growing private messaging company. Reports said Facebook proposed a cash acquisition worth $3 billion, but Snapchat co-founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel rejected it. Snapchat therefore remained independent rather than becoming a Facebook-owned product.
The approach reflected Facebook’s concern about Snapchat’s popularity among younger users and its disappearing-photo model. Facebook had already introduced Poke, an ephemeral-messaging competitor, in late 2012, but that product failed to displace Snapchat and was later removed from the iOS App Store.
The episode is often confused with later reports about Google interest. Contemporary reporting also discussed a possible Google offer, but the well-known 2013 $3 billion proposal came from Facebook. Snapchat’s decision became one of the most famous rejected acquisition offers in social-media history, especially after Snap Inc. eventually went public in 2017.