public corporation

noun

1. a corporation, owned and operated by a government, established for the administration of certain public programs.

2. municipal corporation.

3. a large private corporation with many shares, which are sold to the public or traded on a stock exchange.

public corporation

noun

1. (in Britain) an organization established to run a nationalized industry or state-owned enterprise. The chairman and board members are appointed by a government minister, and the government has overall control

Word History and Origins

Origin of public corporation¹

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

John Gutfreund had done violence to the Wall Street social order—and got himself dubbed the King of Wall Street—when, in 1981, he’d turned Salomon Brothers from a private partnership into Wall Street’s first public corporation.

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The moment Salomon Brothers demonstrated the potential gains to be had from turning an investment bank into a public corporation and leveraging its balance sheet with exotic risks, the psychological foundations of Wall Street shifted, from trust to blind faith.

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At some point I could not help but ask John Gutfreund about his biggest and most fateful act: Combing through the rubble of the avalanche, the decision to turn the Wall Street partnership into a public corporation looked a lot like the first pebble kicked off the top of the hill.

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Yet the idea of federal government investments in public corporation stock has never died.

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It is classified as a public corporation, meaning that any debt it takes on counts as part of Stormont's capital budget.

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