Whole thing is sketchy AF. I hope very few of its selected users falls for the scam invitation to buy early shares. They're not only exploiting them for free content and free moderation, they want them to help pay for Spez's ludicrous compensation.
So, three of my old accounts apparently qualified for the buy-shares offer. Two of them were over the 200k karma threshold to get the offer. Interestingly, the third account had only 191k karma and got the message a day or two later.
Even more interestingly, yesterday a fourth account that I haven't posted to in over a decade received the offer, and this one only had 50k karma. Admittedly, several accounts were mods, but they were mods of extremely small, very inactive subs, and I had de-modded myself after deleting my data. They also sent an email to the my registered email address for the fourth account (but I don't know if that's relevant because none of my other accounts had emails registered).
I'm not sure what's going on. Did they get so little response from the early offers that they're going to the accounts of former mods or lowering the karma requirements? I know a couple of my accounts ended up connected by IP information; did they try to contact my old fourth account by PM and email because it was somehow connected to the higher-level accounts, or because they're getting desperate? Maybe they're just trying to get lots of numbers to show that redditors are eager to participate, to gin up an ignorant public's enthusiasm prior to the IPO?
I have to think that, at some level, they're getting desperate, because it seems so much effort to go to, to dig up an account that hasn't posted in a decade and then send PMs and emails to it.
I have 56k of comment karma and only 792 post karma (no K there,only 792) but I got an email as well. Technically I guess I'm a mod because I started a sub with another guy but it never saw anything beyond the greetings post. However my account is over 13 years old so maybe that counts for something?
And yeah, I have no intention of wasting my money. They might see a slight profit initially as some might view this as the "new shiny", but then I fully expect it to tank the moment the investors get a look at their records and start jumping ship.
I’ve known about shorting for a while but this might actually push me into learning the ins and outs of how. Because it would be nice to profit off this goin tits up.
There are 54 pages of risk factors, which, after reading many S-1 filings over the years, seems pretty long. One of the most notable is the sentence, “We have incurred substantial losses during our history and may never achieve profitability.”
My understanding is on these fillings you're supposed to give a full accounting of all the risks so investors can't sue you later. It's like going for surgery where they say you could die - not saying it's likely, but tries to get them off the hook.
Because spez insists on chasing the newest tech shiny - but only after it's peaked - NFTs, crypto, RPAN, etc. And although it may yet turn around for him and for reddit, notice that he only jumped onto the AI boom three months after last spring's series of AI announcements, showing that he's once again way behind the times.
Edit: one thing has always struck me since his interview last summer. spez said something like "reddit will continue to be profit-driven until the profits arrive". Like the arrival of profits was inevitable. Like he didn't need to do anything except wait. Just be patient and the profits will arrive in their own time, not like things have to be envisioned and planned and put in place to get profits, just ... they'll arrive. Some day.
It seems a remarkably lackadaisical attitude for a CEO to have.
spez said something like “reddit will continue to be profit-driven until the profits arrive”. Like the arrival of profits was inevitable. Like he didn’t need to do anything except wait.
"It’s easy to sit there and say you’d like to have more money. And I guess that’s what I like about it. It’s easy... Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money." Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey, Saturday Night Live
Probably doesn't help that Reddit has spent years cultivating some of the most advertiser unfriendly content available (out of the top 100 visited sites). I doubt anyone's chomping at the bit to advertise on pages like r/jailbait, r/piracy, and r/fatpeoplehate. Even if the worst of the worst have been banned the overall "culture" can't be erased as quickly
This does not stop companies being successful in IPOs and giving share holders lucrative gains. Take Atlassian as an example of a company seen as successful but is not profitable.
I am not a CFO but I believe essentially by eating into cash reserves and accumulating debt. Also there is some wizardry when you work out operating profit / EBIT.
