Reddit Said to Tap Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs for IPO

Social media platform Reddit, whose message boards turned central to meme inventory buying and selling frenzy in 2021, is tapping Wall Street banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group for its preliminary public providing, a supply acquainted with the matter informed Reuters on Friday.

Reddit had confidentially filed for an IPO in December and is aiming for a valuation of over $15 billion (roughly Rs. 1,11,436 crore) on the time of its flotation. It was valued at $10 billion (roughly Rs. 74,231 crore) in a personal fundraising spherical led by Fidelity Management in August.

A second supply acquainted with the matter mentioned JPMorgan Chase can also be one of many high underwriters on the deal.

Goldman Sachs and Reddit didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase declined to remark.

Reddit, which was based in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, has greater than 50 million each day energetic customers and over 100,000 communities.

Its message boards, particularly its WallStreetBets thread, had been on the coronary heart of a pitched battle between small-time merchants and massive hedge funds and had helped drive huge positive factors in extremely shorted shares of firms similar to GameStop and AMC, whereas popularising the time period meme shares.

Globally, IPOs have raised a report $594 billion (roughly Rs. 44,10,667 crore) in 2021, using the coattails of inventory market rallies with know-how and healthcare being the most important sectors driving IPO volumes.

There had been 426 know-how IPOs final yr and 332 healthcare-related offers, collectively accounting for nearly 42 p.c of IPO proceeds raised by firms globally, in line with Refinitiv.

Bloomberg News first reported the information.

© Thomson Reuters 2021