(Bloomberg) -- Reddit Inc., the social media company that helped fuel 2021's meme stock frenzy, is working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to go public as soon as March, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Reddit could be valued at as much as $15 billion in an initial public offering, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
The San Francisco-based company was valued at $10 billion by investors in a funding round led by Fidelity Management last summer. Other Reddit investors include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management and Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to data provider PitchBook.
Reddit's plans aren't final and details including timing and valuation could still change, the people said.
Representatives for Reddit, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Reddit announced in December that it had confidentially submitted listing documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee for an IPO. It didn't mention timing or advisers in a statement at the time.
Lackluster Showing
Capital markets are off to a quiet start in 2022 after IPOs last year shattered records, with 491 listings on U.S. exchanges raising more than $169 billion but delivering investor losses overall, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of those companies, which don't include blank-check firms, have fallen about 12% from their IPO prices on a weighted average basis, the data show.
Buyout firm TPG Inc. is set to be the first big U.S. IPO of the year. It set terms this week to raise as much as $1.05 billion, with its shares expected to price on Wednesday and begin trading Thursday.
Reddit, founded in 2005, saw a surge of interest last year after a forum on the site, WallStreetBets, jolted the stock market. The trading frenzy, driven largely by posts on the site, whipsawed the prices of GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
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