IPO is underwritten by

[micky]

Ancestry.com became a publicly traded company on NASDAQ (symbol: ACOM) on November 5, 2009, with an initial public offering of 7.4 million shares priced at $13.50 per share, underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Jefferies & Company, Piper Jaffray, and BMO Capital Markets.[26]

What does underwritten mean here? I see it all the time wrt IPOs.

Underwriters are used for insurance because someone has to agree to pay if there is a large claim or a slew of smaller claims.

But IPO's take in money. What are those 4 companies underwriting, what are they doing?

Why can't some bookkeeping company with no assets just sell the stock and take in the money for ancestry.com?

[trader_4]

They are the group of investment bankers that agreed to take it public at $13.50 a share, that will offer the IPO to their best customers, that will make a market in it, stand behind it to make sure it goes up in price and is successful. They are endorsing it with their firm's reputation. Some bookkeeping company can't do that, because among other things, it's illegal, there are laws and requirements governing dealing in publicly traded stocks.