Sources: Snap held talks to buy AR startup Blippar before Blippar closed its California office; SAP also considered acquiring Blippar's computer vision team
Shona Ghosh / INSIDER : Tweets: @jake_kanter and @shonaghosh Tweets: Jake Kanter / @jake_kanter : CEO of tech firm trumpeted by British government boasts he's about to sell to Snapchat. Doesn't. Then shuts down his Silicon Valley office, fires 35 people, pays them late, posts losses of £34m, and begins urgent hunt for fresh finance. @shonaghosh scoop. http://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Shona Ghosh / @shonaghosh : Hello, I have a scoop. Snap and Blippar were in acquisition talks early this year but, I understand, Snap backed away from a deal. A few months later, Blippar quit Silicon Valley and paid its Mountain View staffers late. (£) http://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Blippar spent early 2018 shopping itself: CEO boasts about a sale to Snapchat preceded the administration filing that came six months later, and this report shows why the exit never landed — Snap held talks but backed away, while SAP weighed only the computer vision team rather than the whole company. The California shutdown, 35 layoffs, late pay, £34m losses, and an urgent funding hunt read as the aftermath of a failed exit.
The pattern fits Snap's dealmaking history: it previously tried to buy Secret for up to $60M without agreeing on price, and had itself been a target amid Google's reported $30B+ interest before its IPO. Blippar's fallback was another raise — the $37M round announced that September — which only delayed the reckoning.
First-order effects
- Blippar loses its most credible acquirer at the moment it is burning cash — 35 Mountain View employees are fired with reportedly late pay, and the company starts an urgent search for fresh finance instead of an integration.
- SAP's consideration of just the computer vision team puts a price on Blippar's parts, signaling to other buyers that the assets may be worth more unbundled than whole.
Second-order effects
- With Snap out, Blippar's only lever is dilution: the September $37M round buys runway on a promise of profitability within 12 months, raising the stakes if that deadline slips.
- A distressed-sale path opens for specialist buyers — realized when Candy Ventures took over the administration-era business and kept the same CEO running a reformed entity.
Third-order effects
- If platform owners keep walking away from consumer AR acquisitions, the sector's exit route shifts from strategic buyouts to administration and asset recovery — followed by slimmed-down B2B rebuilds like Blippar's later return with 30 staff focused on Blippbuilder.
- Late-stage consumer AR startups face a structural squeeze: government-backed hype and nine-figure raises do not substitute for a buyer, so boards increasingly plan for pivot-or-liquidate rather than IPO or acquisition.
The trend: Consumer AR startups are discovering that platform acquirers will walk away, forcing the industry toward distressed sales, headcount collapses, and B2B pivots as the default endgame.