Are they a publicly traded company?

This is not the same as a publicly owned enterprise or a government-owned corporation. A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company or public limited company (in the United Kingdom) is a limited liability company that offers its securities (stock/shares, bonds/loans, etc.) for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or through market makers operating in over the counter markets. Public companies, including public limited companies, can be either unlisted or listed on a stock exchange depending on their size and local legislation.

Public companies are not to be confused with Government-owned corporations – also known as publicly owned companies – which are also sometimes called public companies. 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. A company with many shareholders is not necessarily a publicly traded company.

In the United States, in some instances, companies with over 500 shareholders may be required to report under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; companies that report under the 1934 Act are generally deemed public companies. The first company to issue shares is generally held to be the Dutch East India Company in 1601citation needed, but quasi-corporate entities, often trading or shipping concerns, are known to have existed as far back as Roman times. Publicly traded companies are able to raise funds and capital through the sale (in the primary or secondary market) of their securities, whether debt or equity.

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. The profit on stock or bonds is gained in form of dividend or capital gain to the holders of such securities. The financial media and analysts will be able to access additional information about the business.

Privately held companies have several advantages over publicly traded companies. A privately held company has no requirement to publicly disclose much, if any, financial information; such information could be useful to competitors. For example, publicly traded companies in the United States are required by the SEC to submit an annual Form 10-K containing a comprehensive detail of a company's performance.

Privately held companies do not file Forms 10-K; they leak less information to competitors, and they tend to be under less pressure to meet quarterly projections for sales and profits. Publicly traded companies are also required to spend more for certified public accountants and other bureaucratic paperwork required of all publicly traded companies under government regulations. For example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States does not apply to privately held companies.

The money and income of the owners remains relatively unknown by the public. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that firms whose stock is traded publicly report their major stockholders each year. 1 The reports identify all institutional shareholders (primarily, firms owning stock in other companies), all company officials who own shares in their firm, and any individual or institution owning more than 5% of the firm’s stock.

For many years newly created companies were privately held but held initial public offering to become publicly traded company or to be acquired by another company if they became larger and more profitable or had promising prospects. 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. However from 1997 to 2012, the number of corporations publicly traded on American stock exchanges dropped 44%.

2 According to one observer (Gerald F. Davis), "public corporations have become less concentrated, less integrated, less interconnected at the top, shorter lived, less remunerative for average investors, and less prevalent since the turn of the 21st century".