Reddit taps Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs for IPO – source

Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Social media platform Reddit Inc, whose message boards became the center of the stock trading frenzy in 2021, relies on Wall Street banks Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs Group (GS. N) for its initial public offering, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Reddit had confidentially filed for an IPO in December and is aiming for a valuation of more than $15 billion at the time of its listing. It was valued at $10 billion in a private fundraiser led by Fidelity Management in August.

A second source familiar with the matter said JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) is also one of the top underwriters on the deal.

Goldman Sachs and Reddit did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Reddit, founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, has over 50 million daily active users and over 100,000 communities.

Its message boards, most notably the WallStreetBets thread, have been at the center of a pitched battle between small traders and large hedge funds, and have helped make big gains in very short stocks of companies like GameStop (GME. N) and AMC (AMC .N), while popularizing the term meme stocks.

Globally, IPOs raised a record $594 billion in 2021, in the wake of stock rallies, with technology and healthcare the biggest sectors driving IPO volumes in stock exchange.

There were 426 technology IPOs last year and 332 healthcare-related deals, collectively accounting for almost 42% of IPO proceeds raised by companies globally, according to Refinitiv