initial public offering

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The sale of a new securities issue to the public, usually by way of an underwriter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun US, business The first offering to members of the public of stock in a company, normally followed by a listing of that stock on a stock exchange.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a corporation's first offer to sell stock to the public