When American companies decide to go public, they have to go through an Initial Public Offering (or IPO). This is a lengthy and expensive process that takes months, perhaps longer than a year. Audits, investigations, legal fees and many other factors play into an IPO and not everyone is willing to undergo this. That’s when reverse mergers come into play: A reverse merger is a process where a private company acquires a publicly-traded company to bypass issuing an IPO and becoming a public company faster. There are a lot of companies that have used this method, both successful and not.

NYSE

The most well-known case of a reverse merger happened on December 6, 2015. The New York Stock Exchange (or NYSE), a business with over 200 years’ worth of history, decided to merge with Archipelago Holdings, an electronic trading company. The sole objective of this merger was for the NYSE to become a public traded company. Four months later, on March 2016, NYSE became the NYSE group and Archipelago Exchange turned into its subsidiary under the name NYSE Arca.

This reverse merger proved so successful than less than a year later the NYSE group completed another merger, this time with Euronext. The result was NYSE Euronext, a transatlantic stock exchange, the first of its kind.

There are three key ways for companies to go public, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The first is to use an investment bank and Initial Public Offering (IPO). The second option is to use a lawyer and auditor to file paperwork reporting as a public company, and the third, and arguably the most advantageous, is to initiate a reverse merger.

What is a Reverse Merger?
Reverse mergers are mergers acquired by a private company in order to make themselves public. While the initial process of becoming a public company is complicated, long-winded and expensive, using a reverse merger is an easy way for a private company to convert to public and get listed on the exchange.
Reverse mergers have becoming a very respected way for businesses to restructure. While lawsuits are fairly common, reverse mergers have a number of advantages, and help private companies become listed as public without the issues that stem from listing a company via an IPO.