Literally a public company is a company owned by the public .
There are two uses of this term. - One meaning is that the
company is owned by a government body. Usually this means that
the company is guided by the state and that making profit is not
its primary goal. Privatization is a trend related to
globalization with the result that more and more public
companies are becoming 'normal' companies. Many public companies
are also monopolies. - The other meaning is that the company is
owned and traded publicly. Ownership is open to anyone that has
the money and inclination to buy shares in the company. It is
differentiated from privately held companies.