Meaning & use
open offer
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A public invitation to all existing shareholders to buy new shares, usually in proportion to what they already own.
Grammar: Countable; used with 'an' or 'the': The company announced an open offer.
Patterns
- make an open offer
- an open offer to shareholders
- open offer of shares
The firm made an open offer to existing investors to raise extra capital.
Under the open offer, shareholders could buy one new share for every five they held.
The open offer closed last Friday, and the results will be announced next week.
nouncountable
A general invitation that is available to anyone who wants to accept it, not limited to a particular person.
Grammar: Countable; often followed by 'to' plus a group or person: an open offer to all staff.
Patterns
- an open offer to someone
- keep an open offer
- an open offer of help
She made an open offer of help to anyone in the team who needed it.
The gym has an open offer for new members this month only.
He left an open offer for his old boss to call him anytime.
Word forms
| plural | open offers |
|---|
Common combinations
- make an open offer
- The board decided to make an open offer to all shareholders.
- open offer to shareholders
- The open offer to shareholders was oversubscribed.
- open offer of shares
- The open offer of shares was priced at $4 each.
- accept an open offer
- Few investors chose to accept the open offer.
- launch an open offer
- The company launched an open offer to fund its expansion.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rights issue
- A rights issue is a similar share sale, but it is usually offered only to existing shareholders in proportion to their holdings and is often more strictly regulated; an open offer may be broader.
- invitation
- Invitation is a general word for asking someone to do something or go somewhere; it is much wider and less technical than an open offer.
Word family
Commonly confused: open offer or offer?
open offer vs offer
Offer alone is the general word for any proposal; open offer is a specific business term for a share sale to existing investors.
Practice
The company decided to ______ an open offer to its existing shareholders to raise funds.
Choose one answer.
'Make an open offer' is the standard collocation in finance. 'Do' is too general, 'take' would mean accepting an offer, and 'give' does not fit the fixed phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “open offer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.