Reddit is expected to be valued at $6.4 billion for its initial public offering on the stock market.
It would make the online company among the first to offer shares to contributors.
The "Redditors" who comment on its boards and the moderators who manage them will have the opportunity to enjoy a slice of the proverbial pie.
This is a departure from traditional IPO protocol, where initial shares are sold to institutional investors and fund managers who then start trading the stock on the open market.
Analysts are torn about whether giving the IPO to Reddit users and moderators is a good thing. Reddit is looking to raise almost $750 million in initial public offering.
The company is looking to list shares at a price between $31 and $34 per share, according to an IPO prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Reddit will take in between $473.6 million and $519.4 million from the sale of roughly 15.3 million shares. Current Reddit investors will sell 6.7 million shares, raising between $208.4 million and $228.6 million for their portfolios.
But the company won't benefit from those sales.
Per standard IPO operating procedure, those shares will typically end up with a mix of mutual funds, hedge funds, and other major investment groups who will then hawk them to their investor customers.
The company also is looking to sell 1.76 million shares to certain board members and "friends and family members" of certain board members and employees. This will make up around 8% of the total offering.
Stock purchasers who pay the IPO price for their shares will not be tied to "lock-up agreements" that require company officials and employees to hold their shares for a fixed period, often as long as six months or more.
Thus, shareholders will be able to sell right away.
