公司老板召集手下Lisa和Ken開會，商量公司上市的問題。Jerry說，

Jerry: Well, I've called you here today because we have to make a very important decision, one that affects the future of our company. As you know...we have been a privately held, family owned company for over 120 years, but it has come to my attention that it may be time to consider some major changes.

Lisa: You mean... like becoming a publicly traded company?
J: That's right. It's something we should give serious consideration to.

這家公司120多年來，一直是 privately held, family owned 私人持有、家族經營的公司。Jerry 說，it has come to my attention 意思是我注意到，如今應該考慮采取重大改革了。Lisa 問 Jerry 是不是想成為 a publicly traded company. 上市公司。 Ken 說，

Ken: Wow Jerry! That is a revolutionary idea. Can you tell us why you think this makes good business sense to you?

J: We've been doing quite well on our own and we could probably survive like this for quite a few more years to come, but if we really want to take it to the next level, we are going to have to consider finding more investors. We simply don't have the funds to make any serious investments towards obtaining a bigger market share. We need funds to grow.

上市從商業角度看，有沒有道理呢？換句話說，does it make good business sense? Jerry 解釋說，公司保持現狀再維持幾年肯定沒有問題，但如果想 take it to the next level 更上一層樓的話， 就要找到更多的投資人。公司要爭取 a bigger market share 更大的市場份額，需要資金，有了資金，才能成長。

K: So our goal in making an initial public offering is to solicit investors? But then we'll have to accept a Board of Directors chosen by our stockholders. Wouldn't that limit us in many ways?

J: There will certainly be some limitations. But if you consider the massive capital investment that we'll receive, you'll understand that this could take our company from being a medium tier firm to one of the big players.

L: What are the risks of making the decision to become a publicly traded company?

首次公開募股initial public offering也就是公司上市，簡稱 IPO。上市公司由股東 stockholders 推選董事會 Board of Directors，當然會給公司決策帶來一些限制，但是Jerry說，與此同時，上市能籌集到大筆資金，讓他們的公司從一個中等層次的公司，變成 one of the big players 舉足輕重的大公司之一。從家族企業變成上市公司可能會有哪些風險呢？我們下次繼續聽。