the private operating company shareholders exchange their shares of the private company for either new or existing shares of the public company
* At the end of the transaction, the shareholders of the private operating company own a majority of the public company and the private operating company has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the public company.
A “Reverse Merger” allows a privately held company to go public by acquiring a controlling interest in, and merging with, a public operating or public shell company.
A “shell company” a publically traded company with (1) no or nominal operations and
(2) either no or nominal assets or assets consisting solely of any amount of cash and cash equivalents.