What is an "IPO"?
An IPO stands for initial public offering, which means when a private company is going to go public. Why are they doing an IPO? They're doing and IPO because they need to raise money. They're raising money because they want to grow the company. They need to acquire other companies. So, they offer stock out to the marketplace. As they sell the stock during the IPO, the ownership in their company to the public, they're going to raise capital to invest within the firm itself, to hopefully grow the firm.