A publicly listed company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public company can be listed on a stock exchange, which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In most cases, public companies are private enterprises in the private sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets. Public companies are formed within the legal systems of particular states, and therefore have associations and formal designations which are distinct and separate in the polity in which they reside.
A company is required to conform to public reporting requirements once they meet any of these criteria: sell securities in an initial public offering (IPO), their investor base reaches a certain size, or voluntarily register with the SEC. Once a company is public, it is required to disclose its financial and business information regularly to the public. Companies that are publicly traded are not publicly owned, they are not owned or controlled by any government.
