Difference between "salir a" and "salir de"

Question

Reading the introduction to this article La Audiencia Nacional abre juicio a Rodrigo Rato y 34 acusados por la salida a Bolsa de Bankia I find the phrase:

de la causa que investiga la salida a Bolsa de la entidad bancaria.

Looking in the DLE I find many (41) definitions for salir but they nearly all use de not a. The exceptions do not seem to correspond to the meaning here. I take it that the phrase is about the banking organisation leaving the stock exchange, I am not looking for a translation. So my question is why is it not la salida de la Bolsa?

There is a Q&A here about the difference between a and de but that does not help me.

Answer 1

Salir a bolsa is an idiomatic expression, that is, a fixed phrase with a specific meaning that is not totally obvious from the words (like its equivalent in English, going public, I guess). It is a well-known phrase in the terminology of financial markets:

Salir a bolsa consiste en un proceso que se orienta a que las acciones de una empresa coticen en la bolsa, es decir, que se puedan comprar y vender de manera libre. Esta acción permite a que personas con ahorros o capital puedan invertir en una empresa para obtener beneficios a medio y largo plazo, aunque siempre teniendo en cuenta el riesgo que supone, y consiste en una acción que permite a la empresa obtener la financiación que necesita.

Although the meaning of the phrase itself is not immediately apparent, the preposition a makes sense: together with salir it refers to movement "out into" some larger place, often with some purpose. There are many phrases that use salir a:

• salir a jugar = "go out to play"
• salir a hablar = "start to talk"
• salir al campo = "go out into the field"
• salir al sol = "go outside, under the sun"

There are instances where salir de means "to go out and engage in some activity", most of which refer to partying:

• salir de farra/parranda/joda = "go out partying"
• salir de compras = "go shopping"
• salir de paseo = "go take a walk/ride"
• salir de gira = "go on a tour"

Because of this usage, where the bare noun following salir de refers to certain kinds of activities, it's not likely that salir de bolsa would be understood as "go out and offer shares; go public". Instead it would probably be parsed in the same way as the common uses of salir de = "go out from, abandon, exit", that is, the exact opposite of the intended meaning.

Answer 2

"Salir a" means that you are going somewhere or you are about to do something, e.g.:

Salir al mercado = Going to the grocery market
Salir a sacar la basura = Out to take the trash

"Salir de" means you are getting out of something, like debt or a relationship.

Sometimes both can be used for the same purpose like:

Salir a viajar / Salir de viaje = Going out to travel

Answer 3

Check out https://www.lawlessspanish.com/vocabulary/expressions/ex-salir.html.

salir a: "to come out to (price)" or "to take after, resemble"

salir de: "to leave" or "to come from (e.g., salt comes from seawater)"