Photos: Winter Weather; Storm brings biggest waves on earth to the Northwest coast The Weather Network; Week in Weather: January 19; Temperatures in Orlando area drop to coldest since 2010 Tribune News Service; South awaits thaw from snow, icy roads and numbing cold Associated Press
Selling shares of stock to investors is a common way that companies attract capital that they can use to fund new projects and growth. An initial public offering, or IPO, is a company's first sale of stock to the public. When a company files for an IPO, it plans on selling stock to the public, which means the company goes from being privately owned to being publicly owned.
go public, 1  to issue stock for sale to the general public. 2  to present private or previously concealed information, news, etc., to the public; make matters open to public view: The senator threatened to go public with his congressional-reform plan.