Reddit Said To Be Moving Closer To Long-Anticipated IPO

Reddit appears to be moving closer to a long-anticipated IPO.

Citing sources, the news agency Reuters said the tech company could make the move to go public as soon as March and has been drawing up paperwork toward that end.

Reddit had filed a confidential SEC registration in 2021 as it was contemplating a public stock debut. The San Francisco-based company was valued at $10 billion at that time. The climate has been challenging lately for IPOs and if Reddit’s proceeds, it will be the first for any social media firm since Pinterest in 2019. Some market watchers expect a healthier pipeline of IPOs this year, thanks to declining interest rates and more stability in the equity markets.

As of last October, Reddit had 70 million daily active users. It focuses on communities organized by topic, and if the IPO happens, it will be an ironic twist given the role the company played in the meme-stock wave of 2020 and 2021. GameStop, AMC and other darlings of individual investors saw buy-in support galvanized by Reddit threads.

Advertising will immediately be a question raised by potential investors, especially given the competitive position of Meta Platforms and other large tech players. A recent report by The Information pegged Reddit’s 2023 ad revenue at $800 million, up about 20% from the prior year.

One beneficiary from an IPO would be Condé Nast parent Advance Publications. A few years after Reddit was founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz, the nascent site was sold to Condé and then spun into an independent company.

Because Advance and Reddit have been privately held, the exact size of the company’s stake has not been previously revealed, but it reportedly holds a majority of shares.