March 21 (UPI) — Social media platform Reddit launched an initial public offering on Thursday in the first major tech stock launch in five years.
Reddit will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RDDT after pricing its shares on the high end of its projected range at $34 per share.
The company is offering 22,000,000 shares of Class A common stock.
Reddit is seeking a $6.5 billion valuation and hopes to raise $748 million in new capital.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian shared a video celebrating the IPO on X.
“We did it, mom,” he wrote.
Reddit has struggled to make money over its lifetime, making more than $800 million in annual sales but reporting net losses of more than $90 million.
In hopes of quieting Reddit users who are opposed to taking the platform public, the company is setting aside more than 1 million shares for some of its most passionate users, called “Redditors,” at the risk of making the shares more volatile in the market.
Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said he hopes going public will make the platform a stronger company and make it a stronger outlet for its users.
Reddit says it has an average of 73 million users but has never been able to turn those users into a profitable company over complaints about negative content and culture that have driven away some advertisers and potential sponsors.
It was also the primary home for “meme stock” traders in early 2021 who sought to boost prices of stocks targeted by short sellers including GameStop.
Pinterest was the last major tech stock to launch on the NYSE in 2019, which saw its price soar up 25% from its initial offering of $19 per share.
