Public company

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland.

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

Securities traded on a stock exchange include stock issued by listed companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds.

Usually, the securities of a publicly traded company are owned by many investors while the shares of a privately held company are owned by relatively few shareholders.

Though less visible than their publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the world's economy.

Publicly traded companies are able to raise funds and capital through the sale (in the primary or secondary market) of shares of stock. This is the reason publicly traded corporations are important; prior to their existence, it was very difficult to obtain large amounts of capital for private enterprises - significant capital could only come from a smaller set of wealthy investors or banks willing to risk typically large investments. The profit on stock is gained in form of dividend or capital gain to the holders.

Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from the fixed schedule dividends.

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first company in history to issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public.

As the world's first publicly traded company and first listed company (the first company to be ever listed on an official stock exchange), the VOC was the first company to issue stock and bonds to the general public.

The initial shareholders of the company are able to share risk by selling shares to the public. If one were to hold a 100% share of the company, he or she would have to pay all of the business's debt; however, if an individual were to hold a 50% share, they would only need to pay 50% of the debt. This increases asset liquidity and the company does not need to depend on funding from a bank. For example, in 2013 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg owned 29.3% of the company's class A shares, which gave him enough voting power to control the business, while allowing Facebook to raise capital from, and distribute risk to, the remaining shareholders. Facebook was a privately held company prior to its initial public offering in 2012.

Through this process, colloquially known as floating, or going public, a privately held company is transformed into a public company.

In the United States, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act imposes additional requirements.

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" (in the Senate) and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" (in the House) and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law that set new or expanded requirements for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that firms whose stock is traded publicly report their major shareholders each year.

To achieve its mandate, the SEC enforces the statutory requirement that public companies and other regulated companies submit quarterly and annual reports, as well as other periodic reports.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that firms whose stock is traded publicly report their major shareholders each year.

A shareholder is an individual or institution (including a corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation.

Many stock exchanges require that publicly traded companies have their accounts regularly audited by outside auditors, and then publish the accounts to their shareholders.

They handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies, creating an oligopoly in auditing large companies.

More infrequently, some companies — such as investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and logistics services provider United Parcel Service (UPS) — chose to remain privately held for a long period of time after maturity into a profitable company.

After decades of debate among the partners, the company became a public company via an initial public offering in May 1999.

This is typically done through a leveraged buyout and occurs when the buyers believe the securities have been undervalued by investors.

Similar to the approach employed in the McLean transaction, the use of publicly traded holding companies as investment vehicles to acquire portfolios of investments in corporate assets was a relatively new trend in the 1960s, popularized by the likes of Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) and Victor Posner (DWG Corporation), and later adopted by Nelson Peltz (Triarc), Saul Steinberg (Reliance Insurance) and Gerry Schwartz (Onex Corporation).

Forbes Global 2000

The Forbes Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2,000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine.

The value or "size" of a company is called its market capitalization, a term which is often shortened to "market cap".

Market capitalization (market cap) is the market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares.

One way of doing this would be to make a rights issue designed to enable the new investor to acquire a supermajority.

When the rights are for equity securities, such as shares, in a public company, it is a non-dilutive pro rata way to raise capital.

A public company can be listed (listed company) or unlisted (unlisted public company).

An unlisted public company is a public company that is not listed on any stock exchange.

The initial shareholders of the company are able to share risk by selling shares to the public. If one were to hold a 100% share of the company, he or she would have to pay all of the business's debt; however, if an individual were to hold a 50% share, they would only need to pay 50% of the debt. This increases asset liquidity and the company does not need to depend on funding from a bank. For example, in 2013 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg owned 29.3% of the company's class A shares, which gave him enough voting power to control the business, while allowing Facebook to raise capital from, and distribute risk to, the remaining shareholders. Facebook was a privately held company prior to its initial public offering in 2012.

More infrequently, some companies — such as investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and logistics services provider United Parcel Service (UPS) — chose to remain privately held for a long period of time after maturity into a profitable company.

Success trap

A broader perspective arises from how exploration activities are suppressed in publicly owned companies as a result of the interplay between the CEO and other top executives, the Board of Directors, the pressure for short-term (improvements in) results arising from the capital market, and the substantial delay between the investment in exploration efforts and the return on these efforts.

UK company law

First, and most controversially, the Companies Act 2006 section 761, following the EU's Second Company Law Directive, requires that when a public company begins to trade it has a minimum of £50,000 promised to be paid up by the shareholders.

Finally, shares in subsidiaries and joint ventures can be (re)-offered to the public at any time — firms that are sold in this manner are called spin-outs.

Mirror company formation is a specialized form of spin-off used to create a new public company.

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets. Publicly traded companies are able to raise funds and capital through the sale (in the primary or secondary market) of shares of stock. This is the reason publicly traded corporations are important; prior to their existence, it was very difficult to obtain large amounts of capital for private enterprises - significant capital could only come from a smaller set of wealthy investors or banks willing to risk typically large investments. The profit on stock is gained in form of dividend or capital gain to the holders. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first company in history to issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public.

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

A public company can be listed (listed company) or unlisted (unlisted public company).