Concept
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporation (or closely held corporation), there are relatively few shareholders or company members. Related terms are unquoted company and unlisted company. They are less visible and may be less popular than their publicly traded counterparts, but private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 largest private companies in the United States accounted for 1 billion in revenue was 305. Separately, all non-government-owned companies are considered private enterprises. That meaning includes both publicly traded and privately held companies since their investors are individuals in the private sector. Private ownership of productive assets differs from state ownership or collective ownership (as in worker-owned companies). This usage is often found in former Eastern Bloc countries to differentiate from former state-owned enterprises, but it may be used anywhere when contrasting to a state-owned or a collectively owned company. In the United States, the term privately held company is more often used to describe for-profit enterprises whose shares are not traded on the stock market. In countries with public trading markets, a privately held business is generally taken to mean one whose ownership shares or interests are not publicly traded.
Matthias Finger, Fabian Liechti