Acquiring a "shell" can save an enormous amount of time over the company doing an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock.
Of course it can. Real IPOs are underwritten, and are extremely expensive. OTC issuers don't do them. But filing a registration statement isn't really all that expensive. You can do it for less than $100K, and it's worth the expense. Yes, it'll take you six to eight months. But one to two months is a best case scenario for a reverse merger. They can and often do take longer. And the shell you buy may have skeletons in its closet. A great many of them do, as buyers later discover to their regret.
You can also go public simply by selling some "friends and family" stock and then filing a 211 and applying for a ticker. In that case, however, you'll have to wait a year until the friends and family stock--which will be governed by Rule 144--will be eligible to trade. All or some of it will then be sold, creating a public float.
A little birdie never lies.
On the contrary, in my experience small avian informants are notoriously unreliable.
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