Snapchat could go public as early as this year

Snapchat could look to go public this year, according to a new report from The Information.

While it has approached some banks, it hasn't settled on a firm yet, the report says.

This isn't too surprising: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has been clear about the company's IPO ambitions in the past, though he has been tight-lipped about a time frame. In an appearance at the Recode conference in May 2015, Spiegel said "we need to IPO" and that the company has a plan to do so.

It's been revving up its advertising products to pump its revenue numbers. A recent eMarketer report predicts that the company will near $1 billion in advertising revenue in 2017 and nearly double that by 2018.

It's also been hiring professionals with IPO experience, including an accounting manager whose previous role included "IPO readiness," according to a LinkedIn profile.

Earlier this year, Business Insider noticed that Snapchat had also quietly added a seasoned IPO specialist, Stan Meresman, to its board in 2015 - the latest sign that the fast-growing messaging app is preparing for a public-market debut even as it raises huge sums of money from private investors.

On his personal website, Meresman describes himself as a financial expert who "advises CEOs & CFOs on preparing to become a public reporting company, IPO process, operating as a public company, and scaling the company for rapid growth."

He says he's guided four companies through successful IPOs - LinkedIn, Zynga, Riverbed Technology, and Polycom - and he served as the CFO at chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor during its IPO.

Snapchat's acting CFO, Drew Vollero, hasn't taken a company public before, but he has worked at a publicly traded one. Vollero joined Snapchat in August 2015 after spending 10 years at Mattel.