Snap Says It Is No Longer Subjected To DOJ Probe

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, said the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are no longer investigating it. 

Reuters is reporting that the probe involved an allegation that Snap lied to investors when it went public in March of 2017.

Snap said that it was subpoenaed last year for information about how competition from Instagram had affected its growth. 

The news was revealed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday (Oct. 23), according to the Financial Times.

Snap said that it answered queries for “subpoenas and requests for information,” and that the organizations were “investigating issues related to allegations asserted in our federal securities class action about our IPO disclosures.”

The company also said: “In September 2019, both the DOJ and SEC provided us with written confirmations that they are no longer pursuing their investigations of these matters.”

Snap opened at $24 a share on its first day of trading but has never reached that level since. 

In its latest financial report, Snap said its daily active user base reached 210 million in Q3 — that’s in comparison with 203 million in Q2 2019 and 186 million in Q3 2018.

Snap Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Evan Spiegel said the company has been working hard to make the platform available around the world. As a result, people all over the globe can harness the strength of visual communication. After an Android app rebuild, he said, the platform works better on a broader range of devices. The company has also been at work on localization, as well as other initiatives to form a better user experience in global markets.

Spiegel said, “This has helped us substantially increase the rate at which we onboard new Android users, who not only download Snapchat, but also use it on an ongoing basis to talk with their friends, contributing to our daily active user growth.”