From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
privately held company
is a
company
which is not publicly listed on a
stock market
and consequently cannot be openly bought or sold. Often it is owned by a family or a small group of
shareholders
. Private companies are often small, but some are amongst the largest companies in the world.
[1]
Many
public companies
started life as private companies. In the
United States
, private companies are held to different
auditing
standards than are public companies.
[2]
Private companies do not have to file with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC).
[3]
This makes it harder to find
financial
information on private companies.