public company

American  

noun

British.

1. a company that has more than 50 shareholders and whose shares are offered for public subscription.

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public company British  

noun

1. a limited company whose shares may be purchased by the public and traded freely on the open market and whose share capital is not less than a statutory minimum; public limited company Compare private company

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public company Cultural  

1. A company that sells shares in itself to the public to raise capital. When a previously privately owned company offers shares, it is said to “go public.”

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Example Sentences

She has emphasized to executives and board directors the need for OpenAI to improve its internal controls, cautioning that the company isn’t yet ready to meet the rigorous reporting standards required of a public company.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

As part of the settlement, Feldman neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, and unlike some of his co-defendants, he was not barred from serving as an officer of a public company for five years.

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

Another big Pentagon supplier, L3Harris, agreed in mid-January to ramp up production and spin off its missiles business into a new public company backed by a $1 billion Pentagon investment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

But amid heavy venture-capital funding and pressures for growth, Allbirds has finished every one of its years as a public company so far in the red, when measured by net income, according to FactSet data.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026

I was dining over at Lambeth, the other day, at a free-and-easy - quite promiscuous - with a public company - when some gentleman, he left these gloves behind him!

From Reprinted Pieces by Dickens, Charles