The Public company reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Public company

Literally a public company is a company owned by the public. There are two uses of this term.

• One meaning is that the company is owned by a government body. Usually this means that the company is guided by the state and that making profit is not its primary goal. Privatization is a trend related to globalization with the result that more and more public companies are becoming 'normal' companies. Many public companies are also monopolies. See public corporation.
• The other meaning is that the company is owned by stockholders who are members of the general public and traded publicly. Ownership is open to anyone that has the money and inclination to buy shares in the company. It is differentiated from privately held companies where the shares are held by a small group of individuals often members of one or a small group of families or otherwise related individuals (or other companies).

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