SNOOcalypse - document, discuss, and promote the downfall of Reddit. @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Reddit might once again be flirting with an IPO

techcrunch.com Reddit might once again be flirting with an IPO | TechCrunch

The San Francisco-based company, co-founded by Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, could go public as early as Q1.

IPO = Initial Public Offering, where shareholders offer to sell their shares to the public, shifting a company from a "private company" (it belongs to me, you, and that guy) to a "public company" (it belongs to anyone who pays enough for the shares).

The userbase has been always touchy when it comes to IPO, and rightfully so; they know that the new owners will only care about squeezing the platform dry. As such, I predict a new flood of Redditfugees to Lemmy and Kbin.

Reddit Migration @kbin.social

Reddit might once again be flirting with an IPO | TechCrunch

techcrunch.com /2023/11/27/reddit-might-once-again-be-flirting-with-an-ipo/

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68 comments

Who will be the sucker that buys a site full of bots reposting content for other bots to "discuss"?
- Vulture capital. They don't really care about what they're buying as long as they get some profit out of it.
  
  That would require reddit to actually be making a profit....
- It's gotten really bad. Since the protests a lot of subs seem to be just gone and a lot of the old subs that are still there are mostly just bots reposting top posts, with a bunch of bots reposting top comments. Someone made a bot who tracks those repost bots and calls them out (which Reddit could do from within their backend automatically), and some submissions had like 60-70 percent removed bot comments. And of course all of them had a bunch of gullible idiots talking to them.
  
  Interesting, any link to that bot analysis?
- Lots of little suckers, as opposed to any big single one. An IPO means its going to hit the stock market. You could buy a share, and then go to a shareholder meeting and yell at them if you wanted. Theoretically.
- That reminds me of this super genius billionaire guy...
- It's not even good for support anymore. Anytime a search engine gives me a Reddit link, at least 10% of the comments have been deleted. The best information has been gutted.
- Have you seen how much bot content is here? Glass houses and all.
  
  Three key differences: bot content here is marked, avoiding it is as easy as checking a box in your profile, and Lemmy not being sold.
  
  What are you smoking bud

Once again? I thought they were already in the process of it. The API-change was just another piece of it.
- They've been talking about IPO for a few years, but apparently this time it's a bit more serious. Unless something happens that throws their valuation down the drain.
  
  Again

Imagine investing in reddit, an actively hostile user base that will do anything to avoid ads and will completely bolt if you take the porn away.
- They’ve already ran plenty of us off too. I used it for more than a decade. I miss good video subs though.
  
  I'm waiting for peertube to get sorted, hopefully doesn't take too long.
- Think of the astroturfing opportunities!!

You'd have to be nuts to invest in Reddit, given the current state of the platform.
The the CEO admitting reddit is not profitable in its current state.
The amount of media attention the API change protests have gotten. * The ever increasing amount of search engine links to removed content.
Memelords already talking about shorting the stock into the ground if it goes public.
Various scandals involving the CEO, with likely more to come.
Little to no third-party developers willing to write new software that integrates with Reddit anymore because they are now seen as an unpredictable party.
There is no way any of this leads to significant growth. The user base that has stuck around is generally not interested in the things that make reddit reddit, being a community-driven and -moderated platform. And significant changes to how the platform works (thereby taking away the unique selling points) will put it into a position where there is no real advantage over using competing platforms. This will make binding new users to the platform a difficult task.
The only ones stupid enough to buy lots of reddit stock will have an incentive to change it and make it profitable. We've seen musk attempt this with Twitter and just look how that has worked out so far.
The worst part is that Spez will likely still get to cash out and fuck off while the platform dies and burns in his wake.
- What are the Spez scandals?

What's a reddit?
- Some site that used to be relevant a long time ago, that now we watch die with morbid curiosity.

I will watch their IPO with much interest. It can perhaps be a second source of schadenfreude for me after the Robinhood stock dropping below $10 per share.

Fuck em.

Good more chance for Lemmy to grow!

I mean; we could always take reddit down the same way WallStreetBets took down GME... [/S] [NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE]
- Just imagine the Superstonkers shorting Reddit to death.
  
  Superstonk is so brainwashed by the mods that they would "naturally" (more like: any opinion other than that gets removed) start theorizing that Hedgefunds want to buy reddit only to shut down Superstonk. Just to highlight how bad the Superstonk mods are: The word "Lemmy" gets you autobanned

What's the karma to share exchange rate? Anyone?
- I don't know the one for karma, but for gold it's 1 dollar/gold, based on this link.

In related news, I’ve got a pile of human feces and used toilet paper for sale. There are trolling “jokes”, misogynistic rants, bot comments, and incel screeds written on the toilet paper. Any bidders?
- Have you considered an IPO of your toilet bin? You could get rich!
- 0.01€/kg
  After carefully processed and composted, that is pure gold for agriculture and soil recovery.
- I long expected a sub to show up of people's bathroom results. Never looked for it. Didn't want it myself. But fully expected it.

Let them waste their money. If you gave me the choice, I'd rather invest in FTX in late 2023 or Volkswagen in the middle of their emission scandle!
- ironically investing between the middle and the end of a company crisis is a good idea if you are certain the company will come out in one piece at the end because the price is about as low as it will get due to the fresh outrage. Of course if the company goes under that's a different story

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Reddit “is holding talks with potential investors for an initial public offering.”
The San Francisco-based company, co-founded by Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, is considering going public as early as the first quarter, sources told Bloomberg.
In December of 2021, Reddit confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public.
That move took place just months after Reddit had raked in a hefty $410 million financing led by Fidelity, valuing it at $10 billion.
Then, in January of 2022, Reddit had even gone as far as to tap Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to work on the listing.
When contacted, a Reddit spokesperson told TechCrunch via email that the company is in a quiet period and cannot comment.
The original article contains 213 words, the summary contains 133 words. Saved 38%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- When contacted, a Reddit spokesperson told TechCrunch via email that the company is in a quiet period and cannot comment.
  What, like... the company has taken a vow of silence? The company has a sore throat from screaming all night at a Nickelback concert? The company partied way too hard last night and just wants a morning of 90s cartoons and an isotonic drink? What?
  
  It’s an actual legal IPO thing:
  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quietperiod.asp
  But I like your imagery better. Heh.

"We've entered a quiet period", what in the Tallarico
- Firms planning for an IPO go quiet, ie stop releasing financial info etc, in the four weeks leading up to the IPO per SEC rules. The purpose is to give all prospective buyers an equal amount of time to research an equal amount of information. Sometimes the firm backs out or delays the IPO if buyers aren't satisfied, so going quiet leads to all sorts of speculation along the lines of "will they do it this time?" We've all seen this before with reddit. It feels like old news because it's not the first time, but it's the most recent time so here we are talking about it again.
- I wonder if we couldn't "fix" this "problem" by seeding some revolts there.

Red Dit?

So?
- Usually a precursor to enhanced enshittification

68 comments