Reddit Inc, known for its message boards that became the go-to destination for day traders during this year’s meme stock frenzy, on Wednesday said it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with US securities regulators.
Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit was valued at US$10 billion in a private fundraising earlier this year.
Reuters in September reported that the company was hoping for a more than US$15 billion valuation by the time an IPO takes place.
Photo: Reuters
The filing comes as US IPOs hit record highs, fueled by ample liquidity due to accommodative monetary policies. Robinhood Markets Inc, Coupang Inc and Coinbase Global Inc are some of the companies that this year launched IPOs in the US.
As of October last year, Reddit had about 52 million daily active users and more 100,000 communities, or “sub-reddits.”
The company posted explosive growth as a result of retail investors flocking to its message boards at the start of the year for tips on trading shares of GameStop Corp and other so-called meme stocks.
San Francisco-based Reddit reported US$100 million in advertising revenue in the second quarter, an almost threefold jump from the same period last year.
In March, the company hired Drew Vollero — who as the first finance chief of Snap Inc guided its transition to a public company — as its first chief financial officer.
The company’s biggest investors include Fidelity Investments Inc, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊).
Reddit did not disclose the number of shares that would be offered or the price range of the IPO in the draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu