Many well-known companies have gone public through the reverse merger process.  In 1970, Ted Turner completed a reverse merger with Rice Broadcasting which grew into Turner Broadcasting Systems.  Likewise, RadioShack Corp., Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., Siebert Financial Corp., Waste Management, Inc., and Anthony Robbins firm, DreamLife, all trace their roots to a reverse merger.   Market Ideas, Inc. is a leading financial and capital markets consulting firm, which provides turnkey services to its clients who seek to go public through the reverse merger process.  With corporate offices in downtown Chicago and associates' offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Hong Kong, Market Ideas helps clients nationwide and internationally become public entities.  Market Ideas conducts a full range of services, from helping companies find a merger candidate, conducting due diligence, notifying shareholders, closing the merger, achieving exchange listing requirements, raising financing, providing public and investor relations, maintaining investor value and trading liquidity, and engaging in block securities sales.  To achieve these goals, Market Ideas and its associates provide expert advice in all of the areas that are required to successfully complete a reverse merger transaction.  This includes strategic planning, corporate and securities law, S.E.C. accounting, investor relations, transfer agency, capital raising, and investment banking services.   Being a public company offers many advantages.  Having publicly traded stock provides liquidity for shareholders, a recognized market value of the company, stock to use for acquisitions, and employee stock ownership benefits.  When publicly traded, a company has a market for its stock, which provides an identifiable value and liquidity, which are important to investors and usually not available in private companies.  Furthermore, companies that would benefit include those that plan to grow through acquisition and can therefore use publicly traded stock as a currency for acquisitions.  In addition, companies that want to provide liquidity, or an exit strategy for their shareholders, would also benefit.   Being public also offers companies the ability to compensate employees with stock options.  This allows companies to attract better employees, who are not satisfied merely with a good salary, but who also want an opportunity to gain additional income by exercising stock options.   Typically, companies go public through an initial public offering, or IPO.  A reverse merger is a transaction in which a private company becomes public when it is acquired by an existing public company, resulting in a change of control.  The reverse merger occurs when a public shell company acquires an existing private company.   Generally, the existing public company used in a reverse merger is called a shell corporation.  A public shell is a corporation that went public at some point in the past and currently does not have any operations.  Since the public shell went through the registration process with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has shareholders that own free trading stock, it remains a public company.   The shell typically has no assets, and the consideration that it gives to the seller of the private company is newly issued stock.  The number of shares issued is typically so great that the private company becomes the majority owner of the public company.   Strategic planning is critical to conducting a successful reverse merger.  Our professionals are experts in various techniques to help achieve successful transitions from private to public status.  Market Ideas helps clients evaluate all aspects of their goals and how to achieve them.  Corporate strategy planning begins with identifying a company's objectives and how these relate to them being public.  This includes determining whether being public meets the goals of the company and its shareholders.  Next, it requires the identification of the proper public shell.  Negotiations with the public entity include not just the capital required, but agreeing to a properly designed capitalization structure to meet the company's objectives and any anticipated public market requirements, including future acquisitions, raising capital, shareholder liquidity, stock options, and employee stock ownership programs.   Do you have control of a public vehicle looking for a merger candidate?   Do you have a private company looking to go public via reverse merger?   If so, we may be of assistance.  Please a complete description of your company, and one of our associates will contact you.