How do companies decide how many stocks to start out with once going public?

omar094: How do companies decide how many stocks to start out with once going public?
I was wondering how companies that are just going into the stock market, decide how many stocks they are going to have for sale. What factors do they look at to help them decide?

Answers and Views:

Answer by anonimitie
They decide how many *shares* to issue when they decide to offer stock in their company. They typically hire a bank or broker to drum up interest in the company. The broker then recommends a number of shares and how much to charge for them (Supply and demand). The shares are then offered in an I)nitial P)ublic O)ffering.

Answer by Max M
First they decide on the dollar amount they want to offer in stocks. The number is then divided the number of shares they want to offer to get the stock price. The number of shares is determined by their accountants who analyzes their numbers in the income statement and balance sheet.