How does a public company go private? Don’t they have to convince all shareholders to sell back their shares?
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Being public, the shares are traded openly on a registered stock exchange (listed), and the company has little or no control over who can buy or sell the shares. Being private, the shares are traded in private deals, although typically there are far fewer trades if any.
Most regulated exchanges have rules about ownership and trading. For example, if a purchase of shares takes you above 25% you might be required to offer the same price to all remaining shareholders, they are not obliged to sell, but you must be able to buy those that want to sell. There might also be a rule that if you reach 90% or 95% you can buy out all remaining shareholders at the market price.
But ultimately the decision to be public or private is one made by all the shareholders, so if you can persuade them to **delist from the exchange**, you can take the company private with many shareholders or just a few. And it is this delisting that makes the difference between public or private.
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