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Initial Public Offering, a term for the
first sale of publicly tradeable shares by a company that has previously
been privately owned, otherwise known as going public. ipos are a
crucial stage in a company's evolution, as they generate substantial income
from the sale of the initial batch of shares and, more importantly,
establish the company's credentials with the trading community. Internet
companies have become famous for the success of their ipos, which
generated fortunes for the owners of Cisco, Ebay, Netscape, yahoo and
hundreds of other in the early days of the web. In 2000 the Ipo for
at&t's wireless division raised over $10 billion on the first day's
trading, a US record for any company. But in early 2000 the markets
demonstrated their unpredictability, as high-tech stocks took a dive not
long after successful
ipos of such companies as Lastminute.com in the UK, which led to
altavista and others delaying their ipos. The continuing downturn in
high-tech stocks between 2000 and 2002 severely reduced the number of
successful ipos, and start-ups now find it much harder to attract
staff on the basis that they might get rich when the company goes public. |
