this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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If i may dream, the actual solution to this issue would be a mod/user takeover along the lines of a factory occupation, or a more peaceful worker buyout. (Sometimes the former leads to the latter.)
When the tools of production are a server farm, how do they get taken over? What does it look like?
To be a little more grounded, the real targets of this action should not be "reddit" or /u/spez. It should be whoever is actually in charge. Do we know who that is?
Disturbingly, there is really no way to know who actually owns a private company like Reddit. Once it goes public, then the owners will be the shareholders (and in reality, the owners are the major shareholders who have a controlling stake).
The only clue to the current ownership is whatever management wishes to disclose. Spez wrote a blog post in 2021 indicating that they issued $250M in "series E funding" to existing and new investors.
If there are any finance bros around here, they may be able to dig up some sort of disclosures from bond auctions to try and see who bought it.
The only confirmed investor I know about is Tencent. They invested in 2019. Its possible they were also some of the "existing investors" Spez referred to in 2021.
Bottom line: nobody knows who owns Reddit. But apparently the owners think this guy Spez is a good fit to run their company, somehow.
Yikes, I had no idea Tencent is a Reddit investor. That's another big reason for me to steer clear of Reddit!