Reddit prepares the IPO

REDDIT, the controversial discussion forum, which became known as a refuge for free expression on the Internet, has started the process for listening to the stock exchange, which could complete the transition to the mainstream of companies.

The company based in San Francisco announced on Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission submitted a confidential application for a IPO.

The JumpStart Our Business Startups Act from 2012 enabled companies to register an IPO in the United States without publishing their prospectus until late in the process, provided that their last annual income was less than $ 1 billion.

Reddit said it still had to be determined how many shares it would sell, or a likely price range for the share. At the time of his last fundraising round in August, it estimates its rating at $ 10 billion compared to the $ 6 billion that the company had given six months earlier.

A Reddit IPO has been eagerly awaited in the past few months. The role of the platform as a forum in which users appear under pseudonyms instead of demanding “real” identities, it eliminates from other social media sites.

This year the Message Board R/Wallstreetbets by the Meme stock grass shop was a force on Wall Street when individual investors used the forum to coordinate their purchases and to drive up the courses of several shares, such as the Gamestop player.

The founders of Reddit said that the ethos "Anything goes" was never intended to create the website and that its role as a refuge for freedom of expression happened.

In recent years, the company has endeavored to monitor its forums more active and build up an advertising business to prepare for the change to the public markets.

Reddit has a long and winding path to Wall Street. It was founded in 2005, a year after Facebook, and a year later was bought by Condé Nast for $ 10 million.

It was later outlined as a separate company and went through a number of managing directors before co -founder Steve Huffman returned to lead Reddit and prepare it for the listing.