Reddit Inc.'s stock-trading enthusiasts made it a household name by backing companies that Wall Street wouldn’t. For Reddit’s own initial public offering, a group of them are about to flip the script.
In the days after the social-media company filed for an IPO, thousands of members of the WallStreetBets forum — which boasts around 15 million users and helped popularize meme stocks like GameStop Corp. — voted to boost a forum post about shorting the company, a sharp reversal of their typically bullish ways. Their avowed reasons varied from the company’s lack of profitability to competitive concerns, and mostly centered on spite.
(paywalled on Bloomberg website)
they are counting on their forums creating free publicity just like this… the apes just get used and their money gets taken… that’s the real reason they know an IPO will work… they host and can influence the most important source of chatter about it… they even have the financial news on their side now, talking about how important reddit’s forums are…
if the apes really want to hurt the IPO, they should close their forum
Sounds good in theory, but Reddit management would likely just force the sub(s) to reopen, like they did during the protests last summer.
Dunno how realistic “closing their forum” is. Reddit will just ban all the mods and force the sub to reopen, just like last year when many subreddits closed in protest of the API changes. Some people might leave (like last year) but the vast majority of users will stay. Guess they could try, but it likely wouldn’t have much impact on the IPO in the grand scheme.