Form S-1

What is it: Form S-1 is filed by a U.S. company (foreign private issuer files Form F-1 instead) to register securities that will be publicly traded on any U.S. securities exchanges. It is one of many kinds of registration statements. Company must provide basic business and financial information including but not limited to summary of the business, risk factors, ratio of earning to fixed charges, plan for use of proceeds, determination of offering price, any potential dilution to listed securities. The information is provided as prospectus, from which investors may evaluate the merit of an offering and make educated investment decisions prior to an initial public offering (IPO). Additional information and changes to the initial prospectus in S-1 are filed as S-1/A, Form 424, or Form FWP. Upon acceptance of Form S-1 and related registration materials, the SEC will issue Form EFFECT (also called "notice of effectiveness") publicly to declare the successful completion of the reivew process.

Filing Time:

Related Form(s):
Form S-1MEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior related effective registration statement filed on Form S-1.
Form S-3: Register securities issued by a U.S. company (foreign private issuer files Form F-3 instead). The company should already have some form of security filed with the SEC.
Form S-3ASR: Shelf registration statement of securities from companies deemed reliable by the SEC.
Form S-3MEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior effective registration statement filed on Form S-3.
Form POSASR: Post-effective amendment to Form S-3ASR.
Form S-4: Register securities relating to a business combination or exchange offer. The form discloses the information about the transaction, the registrant, the company being acquired, and the management.
Form S-4 POS: Post-effective amendment to a S-4 registration statement.
Form S-4MEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior effective registration statement filed on Form S-4.
Form S-11: Register securities issued by real estate investment company.
Form S-11MEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior related effective registration statement filed on Form S-11.
Form S-6: Register securities issued by unit investment trusts.
Form S-8: Register securities to be offered to employees under employee benefit plans.
Form S-8 POS: Post-effective amendment to a S-8 registration statement.
Form S-B: Register securities issued by foreign governments and subdivisions.
Form S-BMEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior related effective registration statement filed on S-B.
Form SB-1: Initial registration statement by small business issuers (Revenue and/or shares outstanding are worth less than $25 million) to register up to $10 million of securities. The issuer should have not registered more than $10 million in securities offerings in any continuous 12-month period. Form SB-1 has less stringent requirement than S-1.
Form SB-2: Register securities to be sold to the public by small business issuers.
Form SB-2MEF: A new registration statement to add securities to a prior related effective registration statement filed on SB-2.
Form RW: Request to formally withdraw pending security registration.
Form RW WD: Request to withdraw Form RW.
Form S-3D
Form 8-A
Form 424
Form EFFECT
Form FWP

Tips: About 1200~1500 Form S-1 (and ~3 times more S-1/A) are filed each year by 1000~1400 different filers (2008~2014 statistics).