There's only one Snap IPO Story — its founders

LOS ANGELES - You may be able to make some money investing in the upcoming Snap IPO, but don't look for some say in how the company is run.

Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who founded Snap, Inc. the parent company of the Snapchat communications app, in a Stanford University dorm room, plan to still be in control of the company, post the planned spring $25 billion IPO. After it is released, the founders, who own 45% of company stock, look to hold onto more than 70% of the voting power, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal.

Vanity Fair calls the move a page from the Mark Zuckerberg playbook. The Facebook co-founder made moves before the IPO of the social network to consolidate voting power. "While it is not common for tech companies to deny new investors voting shares, Spiegel and Murphy may be leveraging the fact that Snap’s I.P.O. is one of the most hotly anticipated in an era when the tech I.P.O. pipeline has cooled dramatically," writes the magazine's Maya Kosoff.

Ars Technica notes that the move isn't unusual. "It's not unheard of to sell different classes of stock which come with different types of voting rights in order to keep some power in the hands of company founders and early investors.

Snap has no comment.

Late last week Michael Lynton, an early investor in Snap and the CEO of Sony Entertainment, stepped down to, he said, devote full time to his role as Chairman of the board of directors at Snap, Inc. Additionally, Snapchat recently updated its app, adding a search bar to make it easier to find content.

Snapchat says it has 150 million daily active users.