Initial Public Offerings (IPO's)
The term "IPO" slipped into everyday speech during the tech bull market of the late 1990s.
Back then, it seemed you couldn't go a day without hearing about a dozen new dot-com millionaires in Silicon Valley cashing in on their latest IPO. The phenomenon spawned the term "siliconaire," which described the dot-com entrepreneurs in their early 20s and 30s who suddenly found themselves living large due to IPOs from their Internet companies.
So, what is an IPO anyway? How did everybody get so rich so fast? And, most importantly, is it possible for mere mortals like us to get in on an IPO? All these questions and more will be answered in this tutorial.
Before we continue, we suggest you check out our stock basics tutorial as well as brokers and online trading if you don't have a solid understanding of stocks and how they trade.
IPO Basics: What is an IPO?
Selling Stock
IPO is an acronym for Initial Public Offering. This is the first sale of stock by a company to the public. A company can raise money by issuing either debt (bonds) or equity. If the company has never issued equity to the public, it's known as an IPO.
Companies fall into two broad categories: private and public.
A privately held company has fewer shareholders and its owners don't have to disclose much information about the company. Anybody can go out and incorporate a company: just put in some money, file the right legal documents, and follow the reporting rules of your jurisdiction. Most small businesses are privately held. But large companies can be private too. Did you know that IKEA, Domino's Pizza, and Hallmark Cards are all privately held?
It usually isn't possible to buy shares in a private company. You can approach the owners about investing, but they're not obligated to sell you anything. Public companies, on the other hand, have sold at least a portion of themselves to the public and trade on a stock exchange. This is why doing an IPO is also referred to as "going public."
Public companies have thousands of shareholders and are subject to strict rules and regulations. They must have a board of directors and they must report financial information every quarter. In the United States, public companies report to the SEC. In other countries, public companies are overseen by governing bodies similar to the SEC. From an investor's standpoint, the most exciting thing about a public company is that the stock is traded in the open market, like any other commodity.
Chick-fil-A has steadfastly remained a private company and has never had to issue stock to finance the creation of more than 1,000 restaurants across 37 states. It has done it all through internally generated cash flow and lines of credit. (www.innovativesolutions.org)
Brian, a young business executive, started a small software company in his mid twenties. He would invest long hours developing his business, often working late into the nights. When the business became profitable, Brian incorporated and went public through a stock offering. Flood gates open and money poured in the company coffers and Brian grew exceedingly wealthy.
In 1989 there was an appalling(or shocking) case where a man and a woman had both been killed. The man had been shot in the back of the head, and in several other places, including the kneecap, the woman was shot in the leg, the arm several times and the kneecaps as well to make it seem as if it were an organized crime. Later the
When our thoughts turn to the criminal justice system it is only a natural instinct to assume everyone associated with policing, courts, and corrections will have to deal with juveniles sometime in their career. Young people in today’s society can be so easily influenced by social situations, peer pressure, and family members. The courts in the United States are faced with difficult decisions on a daily basis. Sentencing juveniles to adult facilities for their crimes is becoming a common trend in the justice system today; however it is not a deterrent whatsoever. “The current policies of juvenile bind over to adult criminal court and severe sentencing have been unsuccessful
Stock investment means you are purchasing a share of the company, therefore the company’s success determines the value of your investment. Buying stocks is not a difficult process; clarification of some important terminology and differentiation helps gives you the foundation to start investing.
Carey, Susan, and Jack Nicas. "United Continental, Southwest Report Higher Profits." The Wall Street Journal [New York] 23 Jan. 2014: n. pag. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
The Southwest Airlines company and its culture is one that is often cited in today 's business classes. The airline is widely known to be “different” compared to many of its competitors, a result of its founding values and strong corporate culture. This culture developed early in Southwest’s history and was deeply entrenched due to the competitiveness of the airline industry, as well as due to some of the pressures experienced as a result regulatory issues and stiff competition.
Company had a culture on not giving up through all the adversities the company faced. Strengthening of employees that is when they are motivates employees and is important part of the company. Finally cost awareness is when reduce price in every progression in the business. Southwest airlines are a strong culture company because of how they make the employees feel as part of family. This makes the employees to work hard for the success and that success they see the company as expert and personal
It is also, of course, a handy way of raising capital without having to cede majority control of the company. Indeed, for the few that have achieved genuine nation-wide market share in their industries, there is little choice but to go public or offer stakes to strategic investors if they want to continue expanding.
Other airlines approached the economic crisis by limiting their service or letting go of employees, whereas Southwest tackled the problem by offering workers secured positions for lower wages. Though the circumstances were not ideal, overall employees responded positively to the option of keeping their jobs. They also promote internal marketing strategies within the workplace. Southwest has a clear vision which employees strive to be a part of. In fact, part of their vision is in the best interest of their employees, as a common mantra within the company is, “customers come second… and still get great service.” They offer a casual work environment. This approach not only benefits the employees comfort, but also coincides with the company’s easy-going brand image it wishes to portray. Employees are at ease in at their job and overall enjoy what they do. Southwest also makes a point to attract the desirable candidates for their positions. They emphasize teamwork. Employees are encouraged to help each other out to strive toward a common goal. Employees are often rewarded for their achievements as well. As seen in exhibit 1, these strategies to keep employee satisfaction high, are factors that keep loyal employees within the company.5 Southwest makes every attempt to keep employees content as they believe happy employees lead to happy customers. Southwest has
IPOs are created by underwriters. The first step in creating the IPO is to hire an investment bank and negotiate a contract. The contract will state the type of securities (either stocks or bonds), the amount of capital to be raised, and the details of the actual underwriting agreement. The company and the investment bank determine the structure of the contract. There are two different types of structured agreements. The first type of structured agreement is the firm commitment agreement, in which the underwriter guarantees that a certain amount of capital will be raised. This is done through buying the entire offer and reselling it to the public. The second type of structured agreement is the best effort agreement, in which the underwriter will sell the securities for the company but does not guarantee how much capital will be raised. To protect themselves with IPOs, an investment bank will often form a syndicate of underwriters. When a syndicate is formed, a lead underwriter will be in charge of the syndicate, while the others will each sell a portion of the securities issued. Once a contract agreement is reached, the investment bank files a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (IPO, 2005).
This theory suggests that a youth who may have made one poor choice has now been given the label of delinquent. After the label has been applied by society, the youth may begin to internalize their new label. This not only is highly likely to lead to re-offending, but could also lead to the label becoming what is known as their master status, where society only views them as their criminal label. Therefore, labelling theory suggests that by putting youth through the criminal justice system and assigning them a negative societal label, they are more likely to re-offend as they have been stigmatized by society. As a result, recidivism defeats the deterrence purpose of
Since the beginning of nursing, nurses were always portrayed as assistance and backstage players in the health care field. Nursing is actually considered one of the oldest professions. They were initially known as wet nurses where women would assist in nursing infants who’ mothers have passed or mothers who cannot produce milk (Weatherford, n.d. para 1). Nurses were not looked at as a respected profession until the age of civil war. It was the civil war in the United States that really shed light of the image of a nurse. Nurses at the time were women were viewed as maternal heroin attending to wounded soldiers (Price & Mcgillis, 2013, para 6). It was the civil war and nurses that help structure what hospitals are today. Women like Phoebe Levy Pamper who converted
The biggest stock exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The New York Stock Exchange is a large building in Lower Manhattan that does auction-style trading with a lot of face to face interaction through specialists, brokers, and buyers. There are upper floors in this exchange on which specialists determine the prices of all the stocks. This information then travels to the brokers who work auctions face to face with buyers in order to sell the stocks. America’s biggest companies, like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, sell their stocks through this exchange. NASDAQ is a virtual stock exchange with no physical building. This exchange was created during the 1970s but began thriving during the tech boom of the 1990s. The tech boom helped this exchange become the home of more technological companies li...
Supporters of tough punishments believe that juveniles will be discouraged to commit offense if the know that there will be dire consequences. However, evidence suggests that tough punishment encourages recidivism. Furthermore, regardless of the type of approach or intervention most individuals desist from engaging in delinquent behavior as they transition to adulthood. Therefore, heavy handedness would be unnecessary