IPO = Initial Public Offering, where shareholders offer to sell their shares to the public, shifting a company from a “private company” (it belongs to me, you, and that guy) to a “public company” (it belongs to anyone who pays enough for the shares).
The userbase has been always touchy when it comes to IPO, and rightfully so; they know that the new owners will only care about squeezing the platform dry. As such, I predict a new flood of Redditfugees to Lemmy and Kbin.
Imagine investing in reddit, an actively hostile user base that will do anything to avoid ads and will completely bolt if you take the porn away.
They’ve already ran plenty of us off too. I used it for more than a decade. I miss good video subs though.