Direct Public Offering - DPO

First see: IPO. That's the kissin' cousin here. Initial Public Offering. Like in that magical moment in the back seat of a car late on a Saturday night when a company passes ownership of its company from being private to being...public. That public offering usually comes with the company raising some amount of money in selling a percentage of itself to public investors (with like a zillion additional regulations that follow as well.)

So what's a DPO? Well, basically, it's an alternative to an underwritten issue, where the company sells its shares directly to its own customers, suppliers, employees, and others who are closely affiliated with the company. These are less expensive than underwritten offerings, but tend to be used only by large, established companies. They're rare and dicey. Like...how would you like to have to regularly negotiate deal terms with the people who actually own you? Yep. The process can lead to a very bad breakup.