What is a public company...?

Question

vs. a private one? Thanx for any & all answers, thoughts & opinions!!

: )

Answer 1

A public company has shareholders that have PUBLICLY traded shares on the stock exchanges.  A public company must share its financial information.  A private company does not have to share its financial information.

Answer 2

public company is one with investors and traded on the stock market giving the public options on how the company is run on just about all aspects  a private company is privately owned so all decisions can be made solely on the opinion of the owners

Answer 3

A public company is a company form for the public and its shares are sold to anyone who wishes to buy it. Those shares can be sold freely at a stock Exchange. A private company is form for a group of friends or a family. Its shares can only be sold to this particular group of friends and family.  Other than the above restrictions, both are under the jurisdiction and govern by the laws and provisions of the Registrar of companies

Answer 4

Well ... the previous answers are generally right, but just to throw in one technicality: a public company is a company that has ANY publicly-traded securities. There is a such a thing as a company whose stock (aka equity) is not publicly traded, but it has publicly traded debt securities.