Going public: a how-to

There are two main ways of going public. The company can raise money by doing a stock offering, or a company can go public without a stock offering, therefore not raising money.

Method one -- Going public while raising capital

In a public offering, a company is doing two things simultaneously: it is raising capital and going through the procedure of going public. To raise capital, we introduce our affiliate, a NASD broker-dealer, whose capital raising facilities are extensive. At the same time, through the use of our attorneys and CPAs we coordinate all the preparations to produce a public company having its own stock symbol and public stock which investors may buy from their broker, or online as they would for any other public company.

Method two -- Going public without simultaneously raising capital

There are certain companies, however, which may desire to become public without raising capital initially, for a number of reasons:

• Cannot find an underwriter (a typical problem for small domestic or foreign companies)

• Cost prohibitions associated with an underwriter

• Owners may not want yet to dilute ownership, but prefer to wait as their company is growing, and hence, defer for the potential capital appreciation of their stock

• An owner may want to use stock for acquisitions

• Companies may not want to initially dilute stock by a public offering, but prefer to increase the value of their stock in the public market before raising capital

Should a company have an interest in going public with or without raising capital, and would like to discuss matters in detail, please contact us.