The social media company Reddit revealed that some Reddit moderators and other users would get the opportunity to participate in the offering through a directed share program. This is unusual for companies, as IPOs are bought primarily by institutional investors, reports CNBC.
“Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit. This sense of ownership often extends to all of Reddit. We see this in our users’ passion for their communities, their desire for Reddit to be as amazing as possible, and in their disapproval when we let them down. We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership — for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible. With this in mind, we are excited to invite the users and moderators who have contributed to Reddit to buy shares in our IPO, alongside our investors,” the filing said.
Read More: OpenAI’s Sam Altman revealed as Reddit’s third-largest shareholder
But the Redditors were also mentioned in the “Risk Factors” section of the filing. In addition to cautionary statements about the reliance of the business on its users, the IPO participation was highlighted as its own risk.
“Redditors’ participation in this offering could result in increased volatility in the market price of our Class A common stock,” the filing said.
The filing also revealed the big shareholders in Reddit.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is the third-largest shareholder in Reddit, behind only the Newhouse family’s Advance, which owns just over 30 percent of the company, and China’s Tencent, which owns 11 percent of the company.
Altman was known to be an investor, but the size of his stake was unclear.
Read More: Reddit signs $60 million deal allowing Google to train AI models on its content
This week, Reddit also signed a $60 million deal with Alphabet-owned Google that allows the search engine giant’s artificial intelligence models to train on Reddit content.
Altman’s OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is backed by Alphabet’s rival Microsoft, which owns search engine Bing.