This makes no sense. Market cap and cash reserves are two different stats for a reason. Why would they need to be the same? Just to make things simpler for people who don't actually know what market cap means? (Which, granted, is the vast majority of people.)

This makes no sense: the whole point is to raise capital. The valuation is never just the current value of the assets; it’s based on the expected future cash flows. A good example is in biotech, some researcher developed a treatment and wants to develop a product. They have valuable IP but zero money. So they IPO to raise capital to bring the treatment to market. The investors expect that in the future, they will get dividends or a buyout.

If a company that wanted to IPO had 1 trillion dollars, their market cap would have to be larger than their cash holding. Their cash on hand is considered or at least should be considered in any normal valuation of the company. Because shares are ownership of the company.

So a simple valuation would be something like Current Cash + Assets + Expected Future cash - (Expenses + Risk)

In theory the purpose of an IPO is to raise cash to expand a company. If the company already has the cash they don't need to do an IPO.

Where would a company ever get their market cap in cash? If they had that, wouldn’t they by definition have a higher market cap, since the value of the company is cash + the rest of the company?

Companies always trade at a premium to book, so how would that work?

the marketcap represents the cashflow estimated by the market to be taken out of the business over the lifetime of the company discounted today.

your suggestion makes no sense

...what?

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