Privately held company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporations (or closely held corporation), there are relatively few shareholders or company members. Related terms are unquoted company and unlisted company. They are less visible and may be less popular than their publicly traded counterparts, but private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 largest private companies in the United States accounted for $1.8 trillion in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to Forbes.