secondary offering

Secondary Offering

A sale of securities in which one or more major stockholders in a company sell all or a large portion of their holdings. The underwriting proceeds are paid to the stockholders, rather than to the corporation.

Notes:

Typically, such an offering occurs when the founder of a business (and perhaps some of the original financial backers) determine that there is more to be gained by going public than by staying private. The offering does not increase the number of shares of stock outstanding.

See also: Dilution, Follow-on Offering, Impact Day, Right, S-3 Filing, Takedown

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Secondary Offering

An IPO in which privately held shares in a corporation are sold to the public.

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secondary offering

See secondary distribution.