Reddit plans to place a big chunk of its IPO shares in the hands of its users, an unusual move that could build loyalty but also comes with risk.
The company plans to reserve an as-yet-undetermined number of shares for 75,000 of its most prolific so-called redditors when it goes public next month, according to people familiar with the matter. The users will have the opportunity to buy Reddit shares at its initial public offering price before the stock starts trading, a privilege normally reserved only for big investors.
Ideally for the company and its underwriters, Reddit shares will rise in their stock-market debut, bestowing big gains on those who buy in at the IPO price. If the stock falls, however, it could anger those members of Reddit’s community—a group that, broadly speaking, hasn’t shied away from boycotts in the past.
Banks generally favor selling the bulk of an IPO to big money managers that tend to hold stocks for a relatively long time. Individual investors are viewed as more fickle and prone to selling at the first sign of weakness.
It won't be immediately. This is going to be a pump and dump, but I guarantee you there's going to be a set of first wave investors who watch the stock price go vertical for a few weeks at least.
Also, non-zero chance we get the kind of blatant stockmarket manipulation that gave us Tesla, Gamestop, and Best Buy short squeezes.
The manipulation was stopping the GameStop short squeeze, not causing it. Robin Hood turned off the ability for users to buy the stock, but kept the ability to sell it, something they had never done before or after. They have heavy investments with the Hedge Funds that were losing big on the squeeze, so they stepped in illegally to stem the bleeding. The squeeze was organic, stopping the squeeze was manipulation.
This seems like it will backfire hard. What counts as prolific? My account is old and it has like 600k karma as a result, but that's nothing compared to any karma farmer account that has been around for a year. Some of the most active mods who underpin the entire infrastructure and profit model of the website don't post while bot networks post 24/7. When- not if- the value of that stock plummets after the IPO, they've just pissed off who they deem to be the 75,000 most valuable users.
I'm looking forward to large (if not huge) losses for IPO investors. Then a sub called something like r/EffedByRddt will be created. It will get to 10,000s of subscribers amazingly fast but Reddit admins shut it down and don't even bother to explain at all. They only make vague statements like "terms of service were broken" with zero details.
Michael Brutsch about to perform a hostile board takeover and somehow implement even more open paedophilia than usual
but seriously, also could be a hilarious way to scam jannie nerds by having the IPO price be way higher than the immediate tank once market trading begins. huge rugpull potential
There was also news that reddit plans to use user content for AI training, I think this is a way of calming discontent from power users in regards to that issue while also gaining some media hype.
kinda wishing I hadn't deleted my over ten years old account now. I wouldn't invest serious money but it'd be kinda fun to buy a share and see what happens. guess I'll just be watching the crapshow from the sidelines.