IPO’s: An initial public offering is when a private company or corporation raises investment capital by offering its stock to the public for the first time. Growing companies seeking capital to expand are those that generally use initial public offerings, but large, privately owned companies or corporations looking to become publicly traded can also do them. In an initial public offering, the issuer, or company raising capital, brings in an underwriting firm or investment bank, to help determine the best type of security to issue, offering price, amount of shares and time frame for the market offering.