Social media enthusiasts, imagine an application with the idea of a merged version of Reddit and YouTube. Back in 2006, Google had the opportunity to bring this idea to life. However, Alexis Ohanian and his partner were just not amused by the “insignificant” deal that Google offered. 18 years later, Ohanian, who is known to the tennis world as Serena Williams’ husband, took to Instagram recently, explaining the entire process behind Google expressing their interest in acquiring Reddit and why that deal didn’t fall through.
Back in 2005, Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman founded Reddit. In just over a year, the application received an overwhelming response which brought in the leaders of the market to acquire the duo’s product. Google was the biggest brand interested in Reddit but Ohanian did not go ahead with it, calling it an “acqui-hire” offer.
In an Instagram reel, Alexis was interacting with his followers in a Q&A session. One of the followers asked Ohanian whether or not Google showed any interest in buying Reddit. Responding to the user, the 41-year-old revealed that Chris Sacca, the Head of Special Initiatives, was among the first people to have faith in the application.
Being seemingly impressed, Sacca flew the duo out to the Google headquarters and disclosed their plan to merge YouTube and Reddit. As tempting as the opportunity was to team up with Google, Ohanian explained the rationale behind Reddit’s decision –
“You know they tried. Chris Sacca who was the right hand to Larry and Sergey back in 2005, he was actually one of the first people to really believe in Reddit who wasn’t like my mom or our investors. He’s an awesome guy, he flew us out there.
“Steve and I made the rounds, met everybody got to have a delicious meal at the famous Google cafeteria.
“It was tempting but also the offer was just not significant. It was like basically an acqui-hire. The plan was to merge Reddit into YouTube which they just bought, which was replacing Google Videos. And Reddit would’ve been the commenting system of YouTube.
“So imagine that – YouTube comments could’ve been Reddit comments,” Ohanian said.
Eventually, Reddit was sold to Conde Nest for $10 million, merely 16 months after its conception as per CNBC. Today, as per sources, the same is valued at a staggering $6.4 billion.
How Much Is the Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian Combined Net Worth?
Apart from the money he received from the sale of Reddit, Ohanian has also generated wealth from his venture capital firm – Initialized Capital. Startups of the likes of Coinbase, Instacart, and Flexport are among the many successful investments made by Initialized Capital.
Aside from owning the venture capital fund that reportedly has $3.2 billion worth of assets under management, Ohanian’s interest in Cryptocurrency has also benefitted him massively. As per Celebrity Net Worth, Alexis is worth $150 million today.
On the other hand, with the virtue of being the most successful women’s tennis player of all time Serena Williams earned $94.5 million in career earnings. Further, apart from numerous brands that she endorses, the 23-time Grand Slam winner can also credit a huge portion of her $300 million net worth to her investment company.
Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams are the definition of a power couple and have a staggering combined net worth of $450 million.
