Reddit Inc.'s stock-trading enthusiasts made it a household name by backing companies that Wall Street wouldn’t. For Reddit’s own initial public offering, a group of them are about to flip the script.
In the days after the social-media company filed for an IPO, thousands of members of the WallStreetBets forum — which boasts around 15 million users and helped popularize meme stocks like GameStop Corp. — voted to boost a forum post about shorting the company, a sharp reversal of their typically bullish ways. Their avowed reasons varied from the company’s lack of profitability to competitive concerns, and mostly centered on spite.
(paywalled on Bloomberg website)
They also can’t afford any bad press right now. They already pushed back the IPO by months due to the fall out from killing 3rd party apps so it’d be a really stupid move to ban WSB now. The time to do it was nine months ago when it wouldn’t have mattered because they were already up to their necks in bad press. It’s not like they haven’t been aware that WSB’s would try to fuck with their IPO this whole time.
I don’t think WSB has enough to cash to throw around to fuck with much. The GME thing only worked because normies hopped on the band wagon.