IPO

A company's first offering of stock to the public.

If you want to "take your company public" or "go public," you must file a registration statement with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) before you can sell your stock publicly. Any information contained in the registration statements becomes public, immediately upon filing. Many dot-coms held IPOs in the late 1990's, resulting in quite a few IPOoafs. IPOs are such a big deal because anyone holding stock at the offering price when a company goes public is in line for "free money"-most new issues rise in value, at least temporarily.

Historical perspective: In 2017, Amazon’s initial public offering occurred 20 years ago in May 1997, and an investor who put in $10,000 then would have nearly $5 million today, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2019, Uber, the ride-hailing giant, raised $8.1 billion to become the largest IPO since Alibaba, in 2014. But by market close, the total money lost by investors—$655 million—was the most since at least 1975 for a company in its debut. Shares in Uber fell 7.6 percent below Uber’s already conservative $45 listing price, then fell another 11 percent the next day.