Speaker 1
Did you watch the Oscars? I do not watch the jury. I do not watch the jury. I do not watch the jury. I am alone people so far. When did
Speaker 2
the ratings come out so we know how many people didn't watch those videos? Me and my husband and my daughter
Speaker 9
didn't watch the Oscars. Not like Arbatron or whatever. We will watch that and learn. Nielsen ratings. Okay, now John Tucker, your assignment right now. Go watch I'm Just Ken. I'm Just Ken. Just watch him doing this
Speaker 2
segment. Alrighty, fine. I want to listen
Speaker 1
to Amy though. Reddit.
Speaker 2
Remind us what Reddit is, first of all. It's a social platform, essentially, for people to talk about anything and then it kind of mauled into a place where you can find information about really deep dive into things. So a lot of guys would be chatting about running shoes and what model fits and how it fits and then how to break shoes in, that kind of thing, and many other more. And sometimes it's good, sometimes questionable. So it's a social platform for people to express their views and ideas.
Speaker 6
I wonder if they must have and I'm Just Ken Thread. There has to be. Have to be. Okay.
Speaker 1
So I guess, can
Speaker 6
you give us some context for the Reddit IPO? What's the size that's being projected and how does this fit in with how the market is developing so far this year? Because
Speaker 2
last year it was not such a good IPO market, was it? Yeah, it wasn't. And the IPO market is still rather subdued so far this year. There were only about 7 billion raised, but there were five IPOs more than raising more than $500 million, which is decent. But compared to 2021 when Reddit actually filed, confidentially for an IPO, that was an all-time high that was more than $330 billion raised. And then so in the grand scheme of things, we're definitely not there. And might not even see that ever again. And then at that time when Reddit actually filed for an IPO, it was valued at 10 billion. Right now at $31 to $34 price range per share. If it's price at the upper end of the range, it's going to be $6.4 billion in terms of valuation. So it's still a bit off from the 10 billion that it was projected to be back in a few years ago. So it's kind of missed the boat in terms of IPO sentiment. And so we're going to see whether it's going to be. So there's a still a chance that they can price above the range, but we'll have a look. Genuine right, there is a Reddit thread. I'm just Ken. So at least somebody is with me on
Speaker 1
this one. Talk to me about how Reddit also got into the vernacular when it comes to the meme stock craze that we saw. Right? I mean, that's when Reddit became super
Speaker 2
significant to Wall Street in a very particular way. I think it was significant in a lot of people's hearts, like for the geeks. But it's kind of like significant when people actually win on the theme where they can actually talk about stocks. And to actually to assemble the amount of buying interest in a particular stock that actually drove the prices higher. And I think Reddit is trying to replicate that for his own IPO as well. They're giving 8% of the IPO to people who are really heavy users, moderators of Reddit threats. But then the funny thing though is for these 8% of the stocks, they do not have a lockup. So it would be very interesting to actually see whether they actually sell on the first day or during the first week. Because at the end of the day, these are retail investors. Technically, a lot of the IPOs or issuers do not like retail investors because they're very sentimental, they're very emotional. It's rise a lot and then on the first day and then people will sell. If it falls a lot, people will panic sell as well. So that's why most of the time people will allocate a lot more to institutions. The fact that they actually allocate 8%. I think they're trying to replicate that meme kind of craze, like for his own stock, but whether it works or not is a different
Speaker 6
story. One crazy question though I would like to ask you, you might have no view on this but I want to ask it anyway. We've got two very interesting internet plays in the news today. We've got Reddit but then we also have TikTok. Do you see any way to put these two together in your head for an investor, for a user, for sentiment?
Speaker 2
Well, it's really at the end of the day, it's really about advertising and how much you can and also how sticky in terms of the users, right? Definitely a lot of the Reddit users are actually very sticky. But then it's also most of the, well, not most but have of the users for Reddit. Do not actually have a lock in or do not actually seize most of the ads. And then so whether it can actually turn that into ad revenue, it's a different story. But then Reddit now is trying to license some of the geeky kind of links and threats in order to generate a revenue for itself because it's actually like, it's struck the first deal with Google right now to read and ask the AI to actually machine to learn it. So at the end of the day, the more information, the better information, the more deep dive into things that it gets, the better result it will generate. So it's a good thing that they have that vast 18, 19 years of treasure trove that it can actually use. But at the end of the day, it's kind of like Wikipedia. It's sometimes you can't verify
Speaker 10
stuff, right? So yeah, it's, yeah, up
Speaker 1
you. But I would say also the big difference is it's not, and the end of the day, a Chinese company, right?
Speaker 10
No, this is true.
Speaker 1
I mean, I appreciate TikTok is quote unquote domiciled in the US, but like if you thread the needle, it goes up to China. Indeed, and this is the one issue that TikTok has been trying
Speaker 6
to convince investors of, convince US politicians of that. No, no, no, we're based in the
Speaker 2
US, but it looks like nobody's bought that story. And here we are with this legislation going through Congress. And we've seen Sheen as well. Sheen was supposed to actually come this year to the US. And it's exploring other places for listing like the UK just because of that Chinese connection. So, but then Arm also has like kind of a risk factor in China as well, but then it went through as well. So at the end of the day, like whether like, yeah, TikTok bite-dons will come like, yeah,
Speaker 10
we'll have to see.
Speaker 1
For Reddit, why do you think it's, it decided now is the time?
Speaker 2
Actually, a lot of the time is where IPOs actually come to the market at during this time when the market is not fully open. It's, it's a certain kind of factors is whether it needs money for growth or it wants to actually give the venue for his employees to sell. And obviously there are private share platforms that allow that to do that, but then it's not as liquid. And so at the end of the day, for, for this particular Reddit sale IPO, a third of it comes from his employees wanting to sell. So that is part of the driver for his IPO to come right now.
Speaker 6
You know, what is investor appetite generally now for the risk of an IPO? Because you said the market has been like sort of coming back, but this isn't a myth of a massive run up in the S&P 500.
Speaker 2
Exactly. So in terms of equity capital market, all the other channels are really fired up like all the other two engines in terms of secondary shares sales and also convertible bonds. They are just going through the roof. Last two weeks, it was like more than 10 billion a week, which was amazing. And then like in terms of convertible bonds, like a week was, yeah, a third of last year's a new issuance as well. So it was great, but then that has not transferred into the IPO, which is an riskier asset. So we have seen that the discount that people investors were asking for IPOs is still at 20, 25% discount to already list appears versus 10 to 15% in the past. So that sentiment has not come back. People still want to have a bit of a cushion. And the fact that like the first two big IPOs, Amherst Sports and also Bright Spring, they weren't trading as well. It's still like a concern lingering on a lot of investors' mind.