the.com/public companies
businesses that sold pieces of themselves to strangers, then have to answer to those strangers forever.
means a company whose shares trade openly on a stock exchange, owned by anyone who buys stock and legally obligated to disclose its finances to all of them.
from the model traces to the dutch east india company in 1602, which sold shares to the public to fund risky voyages and spread the losses if ships sank; the stock exchange was invented basically to trade those shares.
quarterly confessionmust report earnings publicly every three months, like it or not.
going privatesome companies pay billions just to escape this scrutiny.
first ipodutch east india company, 1602, birthed the entire stock market.
shrinking clubfewer public companies exist today than in the 1990s.