From Concept to Wall Street: A Complete Guide to Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

Chapter 12. Raising Capital from the Public—Introduction

INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the considerations involved in IPOs and on the company's internal preparations for such an offering. Naturally, the chapter focuses on equity offerings, although other types of securities may also be offered to the public. An in-depth discussion of the actual process of the offering, from choosing the underwriters to the commencement of trade in the share, appears in the next chapter.

As an introduction, several basic terms should be defined:

IPO (Initial Public Offering)—. An issuance of stock by a private company which is raising capital by issuing securities to the public for the first time. In an IPO, it is usually only the company's shares, not the ...