IPO

American  

abbreviation

1. initial public offering: a company's first stock offering to the public.

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IPO British  

abbreviation

1. independent publicly owned company

2. stock exchange initial public offering

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IPO Cultural  

1. Abbreviation for i nitial p ublic o ffering; the first issuance of shares in itself by a public company.

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Etymology

Origin of IPO

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

An IPO would be a welcome exit for Permira at a time when private-equity firms have been looking for ways to return cash to their investors.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026

“It will tell every CEO, every board, every institutional investor, every government, and every ambitious young engineer that the direction has been set,” Blackman wrote of SpaceX’s IPO.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 18, 2026

This waiting period, known as “seasoning,” allows volatility surrounding a company’s IPO to fade and gives the market time to find a reasonable price.

From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026

Cerebras, a startup that has designed chips specifically for inference, had a blockbuster IPO in May and currently has a nearly $50 billion market capitalization.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026

The other, he said, are American investment banks and financial services companies, which often need to prepare glossy pamphlets with graphs to illustrate the benefits of an IPO or a proposed merger.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman