Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• BLANK CHECK COMPANY
  
  A public, shell company with few or no assets, income, products, services, activities, business plan, management team, employees, or anything else that an ongoing business ordinarily has -- except for registration with the SEC. A private company can use a blank check company to go public via a "reverse merger" without doing an expensive IPO. An unscrupulous stock promoter can also use a blank check company to defraud sleepy investors. (Schellhardt, Timothy D. "As 'Blank-Check' Firms Regain Allure, Businessman Lines Up Numerous Suitors." WSJ, 10/29/99.)
  
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