There are various modes to go public in the US. You can find three major grades of listing:
Here are the levels of stock listing.
OTC PINK SHEETS:
The earliest quotation service for over the counter stocks usually called "the pinks". There are technically no requirements for reports or audited financials on the pinks, but, the pinks have established their own voluntary reporting system and enforce it by publishing symbols to represent the level of disclosure each firm is subscribing to. To publish voluntary details requires fees of roughly $5000 a year.
THE OTC BB: The OTC Bulletin Board is managed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and expects that all companies whose equity is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board maintain their current reporting status with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which includes current audited financial statements. There are no cost paid to FINRA for this quotation, but keeping a public company current with its SEC reports could cost $25,000 - $50,000 a year.
EXCHANGES:
The OTC PINK SHEETS and the OTC Bulletin Board are convenient stock markets particularly for emerging and new companies, but clients with well established businesses will prefer to be on one of the mature and higher stock markets - Nasdaq Small-Cap, Nasdaq NMS or NYSE. Each of these exchanges has its own qualifications that a business must meet to be listed on the exchange. Generally the types of qualification elements they look for include asset levels, number of financial partners, required Board level committees, incomes, and market capitalization. In addition all exchanges mandate the company to maintain a current reporting status in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Listing on the stock markets usually involves charges in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For a US company a listing on the US stock markets strengthen points. For Example, a quotation is a method to:
1) Grow your company easier and make it more strong by increasing your ability to invite "mergers", "acquisitions" and "strategic partners;
2) Develop your company faster and make it more powerful by improving its ability to compete for large corporate deals;
3) Leverage your personal profit as an owner by cutting down the amount of time it requires to make money on your investment, and also increasing the value of your company, as well as, changing the liquidity of your asset to a more liquid form than that of a private company;
4)Raise money more quickly and cheaper by increasing the "liquidity" factor for your shareholders
Now most of these considerations are for firms going public from scratch. For those of you wanting to invest in a shell corporation (public shell), to do mergers, then you might want to consider changing a quotation as stated above. For more tips on this subject try googling terms like "mergers companies" or "reverse mergers".
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