General Partnership
This is a list of types of companies, i.e. legal forms such as the corporation.
Public limited liability company or PLC
(also Inc in US)
- 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
(also LTD in UK and Inc in US)
- 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
- 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.
One of the simplest type of company is that run by a single person, a one-man-firm. In the US these enterprises are called sole proprietorships. A sole trader provides the capital for his firm, he makes all the decisions and is personally liable for legal actions and debts. His liability is unlimited; if the business fails, debtors can call upon his private fortune. The profit he makes belongs to him: it is his salary as well as the interest on his capital (if the firm is making profits).
There are two kinds of Co-operatives,
- those owned collectively by the customers
- those owned and managed collectively by the Workforce
Reference
- This article is adapted from Consumerium under the clauses of GFDL
- Portions of general partnerships from http://www.mycorporation.com/Genpart.htm
