Читать книгу Reading Financial Reports For Dummies - Lita Epstein - Страница 51

Publix Super Markets is a private company owned by more than 101,000 shareholders. You can think of it as a semipublic company. However, until Publix actually decides to sell stock on a public exchange — if it ever does — it's classified as a private company. Publix makes its stock available during designated public offerings that are open only to its employees and nonemployee members of its board of directors. It also offers employees a stock ownership plan, which has more than 140,000 participants. So even though Publix stock isn't sold on a stock exchange, Publix must file public financial reports with the SEC.

In some cases, private companies buy back stock from their current shareholders to keep the number of individuals who own stock under the 500 limit. But generally, when a company deals with the financial expenses of publicly reporting its earnings and can no longer keep its veil of secrecy, the pressure builds to go public and gain greater access to the funds needed to grow even larger.