Offering

offering

See public offering.

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Offering

1. An issue of stock by a publicly-traded company. A company makes an offering through underwriters, who have the responsibility to place the offering with individual and institutional investors. Companies make offerings in order to raise financing for expanded operations, though occasionally they make offerings because they have become cash poor and need assistance to maintain current operations. The offerings themselves give investors a portion of ownership in the company issuing them. The first public offering a company issues is called an initial public offering, and marks the point when a company ceases to be privately held and becomes publicly traded.

2. An issue of bonds. A company or government makes an offering through underwriters, who have the responsibility to place the offering with individual and institutional investors. Companies and governments make offerings in order to raise financing for expanded operations, though occasionally they make offerings because they have become cash poor and need assistance to maintain current operations. The bonds themselves represent debt that the company or government owes the investor.