Types of companies

This is a list of types of companies, i.e. legal forms such as the corporation.

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Public limited liability company or PLC

(also Inc in US_en)

• Publicly tradeable shares
• The owners are _not_ liable for legal actions and debts the company may face
• Managed by a CEO elected by a Board of Directors (Board) which in turn is elected by the shareholders in scheduled meetings.
• Extra share holder meetings can usually be called up if enough share holders deem it necessary for some reason
• Usually listed in one or many Stock exchanges
• Rules of stock exchanges define some minimums to capital, cash flow and market value for PLCs to be viable for trading

Limited liability company or LLC

(also LTD in UK_en and Inc in US-en)

• Non-publicly tradeable shares
• The owners are _not_ liable for legal actions and debts the company may face
• Managed by a CEO elected by a Board of Directors (Board) which in turn is elected by the share holders in scheduled meetings.
• Extra share holder meetings can usually be called up if enough share holders deem it necessary for some reason

General partnership

• Formed by two or more persons
• The owners are all liable for legal actions and debts the company may face personally

Limited partnership

• Like a General Partnership except for the fact that there is/are so called silent partners who just invest capital into the business and are not liable for legal actions and debts the company may face.

Sole trader

• A sole trader is liable for legal actions and debts personally

Co-operative

There are two kinds of Co-operatives,

1. those owned collectively by the customers
2. those owned and managed collectively by the Workforce

Limited Liability Partnership

Reference

• This article is adapted from Consumerium under the clauses of GFDL