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Reddit's public leap,
Empowering its creators,
Ad growth in its keep.
Reddit's leap to public market: Files for IPO, looks to expand ad capabilities
Reddit has filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, becoming the first social media platform to file for public listing since Pinterest in 2019.
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The company has plans to list its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol 'RDDT'.
The company has reportedly reserved 1.3 million shares of Class A common stock to fund community-related programs and empower Reddit creators. Reddit is also inviting qualifying users and moderators who have contributed to the platform to buy shares in the IPO through the directed share program.
The IPO is expected to launch in March, with Morgan Stanley & Co, Goldman Sachs & Co, J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities acting as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities and MUFG are acting as joint book-running managers. Citizens JMP, Needham & Company, Piper Sandler, Raymond James, Academy Securities, Loop Capital Markets, Ramirez & Co., Inc., Roth Capital Partners, and Telsey Advisory Group are acting as co-managers.
Reddit reported revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022, and 2023 of US$666.7 million and US$804.0 million, respectively, representing growth of 21%. The company's gross margin for the years ended December 31, 2022, and 2023 was 84% and 86%, respectively. Reddit's net loss for the years ended December 31, 2022, and 2023 was $158.6 million and $90.8 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA for the years ended December 31, 2022, and 2023 was $108.4 million and $69.3 million, respectively.
In its prospectus, Co-founder of Reddit, Steve Huffman, reflected on August 13, 2005 as the day Reddit really came to life.
"We had been online for a couple of months, but until then there had never been enough posts from users on any day to fill the front page. That morning, to my surprise, I opened Reddit to discover the home page was overflowing with posts from real users for the first time," he said.
"We are going public to advance our mission and become a stronger company. We hope going public will provide meaningful benefits to our community as well. Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit. This sense of ownership often extends to all of Reddit. We see this in our users' passion for their communities, their desire for Reddit to be as amazing as possible, and in their disapproval when we let them down. We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership-for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible."
Huffman also shared his excitement about Reddit's future. " We have many opportunities to grow both the platform and the business, the latter through advertising, monetizing commerce on the platform, and licensing data. Our work to make Reddit faster, easier to use, easier to moderate and govern, and simpler to navigate and find relevant communities is driving growth today and will continue to be our focus into the future."
As part of its growth strategy, Reddit plans to expand its ad platform capabilities, enabling more ways for customers to invest and grow their businesses on Reddit.
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