The much-anticipated Reddit IPO is finally here—and several executives from the social media company’s upper ranks are expected to make a tidy sum once shares begin trading Thursday.
Reddit, which has been waiting to list its shares since December 2021, when it confidentially filed to go public, is now selling 22 million shares at $31 to $34, according to a regulatory filing. This means the San Francisco-based firm could raise as much as $748 million if the offering is priced at the top of its expected range.
Reddit’s S-1 lists 16 investment banks working on the deal, including Morgan Stanley, which is the lead bookrunner. Reddit will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RDDT.
Founded in 2005, Reddit allows registered users to discuss topics of interest in various communities called subreddits. Users can submit posts, links, images, and videos that other members upvote or downvote. In December, Reddit had more than 500 million visitors, and for the quarter ended Dec. 31 averaged 73.1 million daily active unique visitors. Reddit has raised more than $1.3 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase.
Reddit’s IPO won’t be the year’s biggest, an honor that currently belongs to Amer Sports, maker of the Wilson Tennis racquets, which in late January raised about $1.4 billion, according to Dealogic.
But Reddit’s offering is four to five times oversubscribed, with the company chasing a $6.5 billion valuation, Reuters reported. At $34 a share, Reddit’s market cap could reach $5.4 billion, a little more than half of the $10 billion valuation it snagged in 2021 when a surge in tech deals inflated values across the industry.
So who’s making money?
Of the 22 million shares offered, about 15.3 million are coming from the company. Reddit doesn’t have any debt and said it plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures. About one-third of the proceeds will be used to pay taxes associated with the holding costs of stocks awarded to employees, according to Matt Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research that manages two IPO-focused ETFs (NYSE: IPO, IPOS).
The remaining 6.7 million shares that will be sold in the IPO will come from existing selling shareholders. Chief among them is Steven Huffman, Reddit’s cofounder and CEO, who plans to sell 500,000 shares. Huffman could make $17 million if the IPO prices at $34. He’ll have 3.3% voting power after the IPO, while his remaining shares (60 class A and about 4.2 million Class B) could be valued at $141.6 million, according to a regulatory filing.
Jennifer Wong, Reddit’s COO, is offloading 514,000 shares and could be in for a $17.47 million payday. Her remaining holding of about 1.6 million Class A shares could possibly be valued at about $55 million. CFO Andrew Vollero is offering 76,494 Class A shares for a possible windfall of $26 million. His remaining holding of 229,483 Class A shares could be worth $7.8 million.
The most surprising thing about the Reddit IPO? None of the venture investors listed in the S-1 are selling their stakes. This includes Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who will have 9.1% voting power after the Reddit IPO, while his shares (789,456 Class A and 11.4 million Class B) could be valued at $413.4 million if shares price at $34.
Advance Magazine Publishers, the company founded by S.I. Newhouse and his family in 1922, will own the biggest chunk, 33.5%, of Reddit after the IPO. Its shares (16,182 Class A and 42.2 million Class B) could be worth $1.4 billion. Advance Magazine also owns Conde Nast, which owns Vogue, American City Business Journals, and The IRONMAN Group.
Others set for a big payday include Fidelity Management & Research, which will have 9.3% voting interest, while its stake of about 11.7 million Class B shares could be worth $399 million. Quiet Capital and Tacit Capital will have 5.5% voting power after the IPO, while its shares (about 3 million Class A and 6.6 million class B) might be worth $325.8 million. Tencent, the Chinese tech company, which is said to have invested $150 million in 2021, will have 9.4% voting power with 4.3 million Series A and 11.1 million series B shares potentially worth $525.2 million. Vy Capital, which led Reddit’s $250 million Series E in 2021, will have 5.4% voting power after the IPO, while its remaining holdings (404,569 Class A shares and about 6.8 million Class B) could be worth some $244.7 million.
Some VCs are missing from the list of investors. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Thrive Capital are investors, but they aren’t listed in Reddit’s S-1, which means their holdings are likely less than 5%. Sequoia, A16z, and Thrive didn’t immediately return requests for comment from Coins2Day.
Alexis Ohanian, Reddit’s other cofounder, is also not listed anywhere in the S-1, Coins2Day reported. Ohanian may be out, but Reddit is giving its top users, including moderators, a chance to buy shares. Underwriters have reserved 1.76 million Class A shares that are available to eligible Reddit users and moderators, certain board members, as well as friends and family members, the regulatory filing said.
