A former employee is taking Snapchat, the messenger app, to court in California. Anthony Pompliano, the ex-employee, is accusing the social media app of “misleading investors and trading partners to drive up its initial public offer” according to Venture Beat.
The Hollywood Reporter also reported on the story and stated that Pompliano, also a former Facebook Inc. employee, is alleging he was fired for being a whistleblower. However Snap Inc., Snapchat’s parent company, has rejected the allegations. A spokeswoman for the company told Reuters via an email that they’ve “reviewed the complaint. It has no merit. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee”.
Pompliano, who was only with the company for 3 weeks, led Snapchat’s growth team. When he learned about the misrepresentations, he urged executives to fix it. He also claims he was pressured to breach Facebook’s confidential and proprietary information.
The complainant’s counsel stated in court documents “Snapchat fraudulently induced Pompliano away from Facebook to run Snapchat’s new user growth and engagement team by falsely representing to him, among other things, the company’s growth”. According to Venture Beat, Snapchat filed for an IPO in November 2016 and is “one step closer to the biggest U.S. stock market debut since 2014”.
How to Protect Your Business
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Storysource:Venture Beat
Featured image source:Kyle Johnson Arbitration & Mediation
