He doesn't have to take the company public to sell stakes in the company, but they have calculated that an IPO is the best way to raise money right now. Also, this type of IPO is different from IPOs that we see in tech, because so much of Quicken is held by Gilbert himself. With tech companies, a lot of the company is usually owned by employees, so a large IPO can create 100s of millionaires at once. I don't think many Quicken employees actually hold a stake in the company, so it's hard to see how this really changes the dynamic.
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