I have no inside knowledge of a potential stock listing of the popular anti-Whatsapp messaging app, Telegram. But I know this much, judging by most people I talk to, especially crypto investors, if Telegram ever went public, people would gobble it up. I know I would. I’m waiting for it. So is Sergei Sergienko, who claims he owns $800,000 of Telegram’s pre-initial coin offering (ICO) tokens. “If Telegram does a SPAC IPO, there would be demand for this issue. It would probably outstrip the interest we saw during the ICO. Why? Because as of right now Telegram looks like a liberal application that can accept anyone - right after WhatsApp and others have turn on the censorship,” he says.
To pay the bills, Mr. Durov is issuing investors $1 billion to $1.5 billion of company debt, with the promise of discounted equity if the company eventually goes public, the people briefed on the plans said. He has also announced plans to start selling ads in public Telegram channels as soon as later this year, as well as offering other premium services for businesses and users.
