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Reddit reportedly seeks investors with influence

With the social news site's traffic off the charts, it could raise a fair amount of money -- but that's not what it's after.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
2 min read

With Reddit users flocking to the site more than ever, now seems like the perfect time for the company to go searching for investors. Which is exactly what it's doing, but it's not cash that Reddit is after.

According to AllThingsD, the company is seeking certain elite investors that could help with company input -- rather than just fork over a wad of dough. A recent article by TechCrunch noted that the company's valuation has jumped to $400 million, but, according to AllThingsD, Reddit is actually only after around $1 million.

When Reddit was spun out in 2011 from the company that acquired it, Conde Nast, it had $20 million saved up, according to AllThingsD. Since then, the bare-bones company has only spent around $2 million. Apparently, it doesn't take a lot of money to keep the site staffed and running. By the same token, it's not likely that Reddit will become a cash cow for investors wanting a big return either. So, anyone considering an investment in the company would probably need to be interested the business also.

Reddit has been on the up and up ever since it was acquired in 2006. At that time, it said was getting 700,000 page views a day. By September 2011, when it spun out from Conde Nast, it got 1.6 billion page views a month on 21 million unique users. And in October 2012, the site reported more than 3.8 billion monthly page views and more than 46 million unique visitors.

One of the ways Reddit has driven more traffic to its site this past year is by hosting high-level AMAs, or "ask me anything" sessions. In August, Reddit hosted President Barack Obama, whose impromptu hour-long interview crippled the site's servers. Reddit has also done AMAs with the Mars Curiosity rover team, Gangnam Style's PSY, and U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who asked users for ideas on a bill to protect Web sites accused of copyright violations.

CNET contacted Reddit for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.