(Reuters) -Social media platform Reddit Inc, whose message boards turned central to meme inventory buying and selling frenzy in 2021, is tapping Wall Street banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group for its preliminary public providing, a source acquainted with the matter advised Reuters on Friday.
Reddit had confidentially filed for an IPO in December and is aiming for a valuation of over $15 billion on the time of its flotation. It was valued at $10 billion in a personal fundraising spherical led by Fidelity Management in August.
A second source acquainted with the matter stated JPMorgan Chase can also be one of many prime underwriters on the deal.
Goldman Sachs and Reddit didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase declined to remark.
Reddit, which was based in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, has greater than 50 million every day energetic customers and over 100,000 communities.
Its message boards, particularly its WallStreetBets thread, have been on the coronary heart of a pitched battle between small-time merchants and massive hedge funds and had helped drive large positive aspects in extremely shorted shares of corporations comparable to GameStop and AMC, whereas popularizing the time period meme shares.
Globally, IPOs have raised a report $594 billion in 2021, using the coattails of inventory market rallies with expertise and healthcare being the largest sectors driving IPO volumes.
There have been 426 expertise IPOs final 12 months and 332 healthcare-associated offers, collectively accounting for nearly 42% of IPO proceeds raised by corporations globally, in line with Refinitiv.
Bloomberg News first reported the information.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta and Anirban Sen in Bengaluru; Krystal Hu in Toronto; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Arun Koyyur)
