Coca-Cola publicly offered 500,000 shares after its 1919 sale.
The transaction followed the sale of Coca-Cola to a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff’s Trust Company of Georgia. On September 12, 1919, the business was reincorporated under Delaware law. Its new capital structure included 100,000 preferred shares and 500,000 common shares without nominal or par value; the common stock was the portion offered to the public.
The offering helped turn Coca-Cola into a publicly traded company and established the beginning of its long stock-market history. The public sale price was $40 per common share, although the underwriting arrangements involved different prices before the shares reached buyers.
That distinction explains why historical accounts sometimes mention more than one figure. The 500,000 figure refers to the common shares in the original issue, not the company’s later authorized shares or shares created through stock splits. Coca-Cola later expanded its share count repeatedly as the business grew.