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Reddit has filed for an IPO

The company was recently valued at more than $10 billion.

A Reddit app icon

Reddit has filed confidentially for an IPO, the company said.

Photo: Brett Jordan/Unsplash

Reddit has confidentially submitted a draft registration with the SEC for an initial public offering of stock, the company said Wednesday.

The social media company said in August that it was worth more than $10 billion after a new funding round.

Founded in 2005, Reddit sold itself in 2006 to Condé Nast, the magazine publisher that owns Wired. In 2011, it spun out and became a separate company owned by Advance Publications, Condé's parent company. Advance remained the majority shareholder through several rounds of financing, but by 2019, its stake was reportedly reduced to 30-35%. It wasn't clear how much Advance owns today.

Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, who quit the company in 2009, returned in 2015 as CEO. Co-founder Alexis Ohanian, now a venture capitalist, also returned that year, but reduced his involvement over time and quit his board seat in 2020.

Changes to SEC rules in 2017 allowed all companies to submit draft IPO registration statements confidentially. Reddit was not required to disclose its confidential filing, but many companies choose to announce such filings anyway, to avoid the possibility of the news leaking out. Reddit will have to publicly disclose its financials and other details as it approaches the actual offering, provided it decides to proceed with listing its shares.

One subreddit, r/WallStreetBets, has become a popular forum for discussing stocks, and its users have been known for propelling the shares of companies like GameStop and AMC to astounding heights. A public Reddit could become that forum's next big topic of discussion.

 Owen Thomas

Owen Thomas is a senior editor at Protocol overseeing venture capital and financial technology coverage. He was previously business editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and before that editor-in-chief at ReadWrite, a technology news site. You're probably going to remind him that he was managing editor at Valleywag, Gawker Media's Silicon Valley gossip rag. He lives in San Francisco with his husband and Ramona the Love Terrier, whom you should follow on Instagram.

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