Definition of initial public offering

Definition

A private company becomes a public company in a process called an initial public offering (IPO). Historically, only private companies with a strong track record of years of growth have considered themselves ready to take this significant step. The IPO has pros and cons that include exchanging a host of high regulatory costs for the benefits of significant capital. After a company "IPOs" or "goes public," investors and the general public can buy stock, and existing shareholders can sell their stock far more easily than when the company was private.

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Fundamentals of Stock Corporations β€Ί IPOs

Companies take years to IPO after being formed. The median time between a company’s founding and its IPO has been increasing. According to a Harvard report, companies that went public in 2016 took 7.7 years to do so, compared to 3.1 years for companies that went public in 1996.*