Going private transaction

A going private transaction is when a company that trades publicly on a stock exchange is bought out and removed from public trading. This usually happens when a private buyer (often the company's founders, a larger corporation, or an investment firm) purchases enough shares to own the whole company and take it off the market. You'll see this announced in SEC filings and news releases—it matters because if you own shares, you'll typically get paid a set price per share and your stock will stop trading. For example, if TechCorp's founders decided to buy back all remaining public shares at $50 each to run the company privately, that would be a going private transaction. It's the opposite of an IPO (initial public offering), where a private company goes public.