What's going on?

Reddit entered talks with investors ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO), presumably in boardrooms instead of elusive subreddits.

What does this mean?

Reddit might have a reputation for hosting under-the-mainstream-radar conversations, but the social media company seems willing to be a lot more open. Literally: Reddit’s said to be working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs on a hotly anticipated public listing. Investors may well be chomping at the bit, as the tepid IPO market hasn’t given them much to sink their teeth into lately. And there’s more where Reddit came from: Kim Kardashian’s Skims underwear line is slated for a listing too, along with Microsoft-backed cloud firm Rubrik.

Why should I care?

For markets: We’ve seen better.
Reddit, Skims, and Rubrik have the potential to create tens of billions of freshly minted shares, but the stuttering IPO market will need more than those three to get its mojo back. Most likely, it’ll take a wave of private AI firms going public to revive the heydays of 1999. The jury’s out on how quickly AI will wipe out humanity – or, uh, flood the public market – though, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll be anytime next year.

Zooming out: The world runs on gossip.
Business used to be risky: firms wouldn’t know how their IPO would go down until it happened, when investors would either back the newly public offering or ignore it completely. And sure, the company in question could blame the investment bank that masterminded the listing, but the Goldmans and Morgans of the world would’ve already pocketed their fee by that point. In this digital age, though, any company flirting with a public listing can send whispers through the media, gauge the public reaction, and ditch the whole idea if the reception’s less than lukewarm.