Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel sees over £200m wiped off his fortune

The boss of Snapchat saw over £200m wiped off his fortune as shares in the social media firm crashed to their lowest level in over two years. 

Evan Spiegel, who helped set up the messaging app in 2011 and is married to Australian model Miranda Kerr, clocked up the loss following bleak results from the app’s parent company Snap. 

The stock plunged 38 per cent to $10.10 on Wall Street after losses in its second quarter ballooned to £351m, wider than the £126m loss recorded the year before. 

Snap admitted it was ‘not satisfied’ and is planning to ‘substantially’ reduce its rate of hiring.

It said advertisers were cutting back their marketing budgets to rein in costs due to rising inflation and a global slowdown. 

Shares hit a record $83 last September but have crashed nearly 88 per cent since. 

The downturn comes amid a wider sell-off in technology firms, which exploded in value during the pandemic but have reversed course as investors seek safer stocks. 

Spiegel’s 2.9 per cent stake was worth £2.8billion at its peak but is now valued of £341m. 

The value of chief technology officer Bobby Murphy’s 5.8 per cent holding is down from £5.5billion to £675m.