Agreed they chose this merger in place of an IPO. Here is an explanation why a company might chose to do so.
Why should I use a reverse merger rather than an IPO (Initial Public Offering)? Reverse mergers have a number of benefits over IPO’s. For example, they tend to have lower costs, less required management attention, much shorter process times, and less dilution, which allows a private company’s management, founders, and prior investors to retain a greater percentage ownership of their company after going public. In addition, reverse mergers are not market-sensitive. Therefore, they are not dependent on the unpredictable IPO window “openings” or on underwriters and initial market prices on the particular day of trading.