Social network, Reddit aims for IPO: could be the biggest in 2024

The Reddit IPO is approaching, and it could be the richest one this 2024. The American company, owner of the platform of the same name, which for years has survived the social network with its ever-popular threads, is aiming for a $6.4 billion valuation. The company, together with some of its investors, is aiming to sell around 22 million shares, at a price between 31 and 34 dollars. This would mean that up to $748 million is expected to be raised.

It must be said that the expected valuation, on a fully diluted basis, is less than $10 billion, Reddit's estimated value after a fundraising in 2021, when IPOs on US stock exchanges set an all-time record of $339 billion. But the San Francisco-based company has been pondering the IPO for more than two years, waiting for the most opportune moment in a historical period that is not too favourable for stock market debuts.

Since its launch in 2005, Reddit has become one of the cornerstones of online discussion. Its iconic logo - depicting an alien with an orange background - is one of the most recognised symbols on the Internet. Its 100,000 online forums - dubbed 'subreddit' - allow for conversations on topics ranging from the "sublime to the ridiculous, the banal to the existential, the comical to the serious", according to co-founderSteve Huffman.

Huffman himself turned to one of the subreddits for help to stop drinking, he wrote in his letter. Former US President Barack Obama also did an 'AMA' ('ask me anything') with users of the site in 2012.

As mentioned, Reddit's is set to be the biggest IPO of this 2024. The largest to date was Amer Sports' $1.57 billion offering in January. Astera Labs, a software maker focused on artificial intelligence, said on Friday that it will seek up to $534 million in its IPO, which will likely precede Reddit's by a few days.