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.
ironically investing between the middle and the end of a company crisis is a good idea if you are certain the company will come out in one piece at the end because the price is about as low as it will get due to the fresh outrage. Of course if the company goes under that’s a different story