Snapchat Quietly Paid $30 Million To Acquire A Video Tech Startup, AddLive

But a leaked email exchange between Snapchat board member Michael Lynton and Snapchat's executives reveals Snapchat paid $30 million for Addlive (Live Foundry): $10 million in cash and $20 million in RSUs and employee incentives.

The leaked exchange is part of a massive Sony email hack.

"The short of it is that they do the backend for our video chat and we're trying to buy them prior to launch," a Snapchat employee explained the acquisition to Lynton in an email.

The majority of the payout went to the CEO, Kavan Seggie, who had four times more stock than the next nearest executive.

Here's the relevant portion of the board-approved email, dated April 28, 2014: