A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be further divided into public companies and private companies. Who may become a member of a private limited company is restricted by law and by the company's rules. In contrast anyone may buy shares in a public limited company.
Limited companies can be found in most countries, although the detailed rules governing them vary widely. It is also common for a distinction to be made between the publicly tradable companies of plc type (for example, the German Aktiengesellschaft (AG), Czech a.s. and the Mexican, French, Polish and Romanian S.A.), and the "private" types of company (such as the German GmbH, Polish Sp. z o.o., the Czech s.r.o. and Slovak s.r.o.).
Famous quotes containing the words limited and/or company:
“There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value
In the knowledge derived from experience....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)