If the market for initial public offerings recovers in the new year, one company that aims to go public early on is Reddit. An IPO will put the spotlight on the prospects for Reddit’s advertising business, which has fallen short of ambitious growth targetsoutlined by executives two years ago. ...
Nothing to celebrate.
Reddit revenue is still up, just not as much as they had hoped.
That’s still enough to tank an IPO.
Yup it’s all about expected growth.
Yep, in the face of the infinite growth monster, anything other than exceeding expectations is seen as a failure
“We see here you’re up 5%, but you were up 5% last year too, so you’re dead now.”
-Capitalism
I still remember a line from a boss I had in one of my very first “real” jobs. “I expect you to exceed my expectations.”
I didn’t bother pointing out the problem there. I also didn’t stay working for her for very long. :)
Can you buy puts on an IPO?
Reddit, as a concept, can’t make more money without destroying it’s value. The more advertising is injected into it, the less useful it becomes, and the less people will want to use it.
So yes, it’s up, but they’ve hurt themselves drastically to get it up by hurting so much of Reddit’s usefulness, and even then, they fell short. People who remained are already low on patience with it.
To drive it even higher, they will have to cripple it even more.
It’s possible to make money with Reddit while leaving it unmolested, but it’s not possible to make ALL the money that way. Investors want ALL the money.