Last week, the popular community website Reddit filed new documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prepare it for its upcoming IPO. Late on Friday, a new report claims Reddit will try to seek a valuation of the company for up to $6.5 billion.
According to CNBC, using unnamed sources, Reddit plans to set a price of between $31 and $34 a share when it eventually starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). That event could happen in the very near future. When it does, Reddit will use the ticker symbol "RDDT" on the NYSE. CNBC also reports that Reddit employees will be able to sell their stock in the company during the IPO.
The $6.5 billion valuation number, if accurate, would be far less than what Reddit was reportedly worth just a few years ago in 2021. That"s when it had its last private investor funding period, when it raised $1.3 billion. That gave the company an estimated value of $10 billion, according to the venture capital news and analyst site Pitchbook.
One of Reddit"s biggest investors is Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Altman was on Reddit"s board from 2015 to 2022, but he still holds a large amount of shares in the company. CNBC estimates that when Reddit launches its IPO, Altman shares could be worth up to $400 million.
In its SEC filing last week, Reddit revealed its financial numbers for the past year. It generated $804 million in revenue in 2023, mostly from advertising. However, the company also lost $90.8 million during that same period. Reddit said in the filing it plans to expand its revenue sources to include monetizing its data and also from commerce solutions.
The filing also revealed that Reddit currently has 267.5 million active weekly users, and 73 million daily users. The company is making an unusual move by offering its top moderators and its users with the biggest karma scores a chance to buy into the stock offering.