Company: Difference between revisions

[[File:Nokia office building in Hervanta Tampere 1.jpg|thumb|An office building of [[Nokia Corporation]] in [[Hervanta]], [[Tampere]], Finland]]

A '''company''', abbreviated as '''co.''', is a [[Legal personality|legal entity]] representing an association of legal people, whether [[Natural person|natural]], [[LegalJuridical person|legaljuridical]] or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals. Companies take various forms, such as:

* [[List of legal entity types by country|business entities]], whose aim is generatingto generate [[sales]], [[revenue]], and [[For-profit|profit]]

A company can be created as a legal person so that the company itself has [[limited liability]] as members perform or fail to discharge their dutyduties according to the publicly declared [[Incorporation (business)|incorporation]], or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be [[Liquidation|liquidated]] to avoid further legal obligations. Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as [[corporate group]]s.

}}</ref> with a discrete [[legal personalitycapacity]] (or "personality"), [[perpetual succession]], and a [[Company seal|common seal]]. Except for some senior positions, companies remain unaffected by the death, insanity, or [[insolvency]] of an individual member.

The English word, "''company''", has its origins in the [[Old French]] term {{Lang|fro|compagnie}} (first recorded in 1150), meaning a "society, friendship, intimacy; body of soldiers",<ref>12th century: {{OEtymD|company}}</ref> which came from the [[Late Latin]] word {{Lang|la|companio}} ("one who eats bread with you"), first attested in the [[Salic law]] ({{circa}} 500 AD 500) as a [[calque]] of the [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] expression {{Lang|frk|gahlaibo}} (literally, "with bread"), related to [[Old High German]] {{Lang|goh|galeipo}} ("companion") and to [[Gothic language|Gothic]] {{Lang|got|gahlaiba}} ("messmate").

By 1303, the word company referred to [[Guild|trade guilds]].<ref>

</ref> UsageThe usage of the term ''company'' to mean "business association" was first recorded in 1553,<ref>

In the [[United States]], a company is not necessarily a corporation. For example, a company may be a "[[corporation]], [[partnership]], association, [[joint-stock company]], [[Investment trust|trust]], [[Mutual fund|fund]], or organized group of [[person]]s, whether incorporated or not, and (in an official capacity) any receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, or similar official, or liquidating [[Law of agency|agent]], for any of the foregoing".<ref>{{cite book | year = 1891 | chapter = company | editor1-last = Garner | editor1-first = Bryan A. | editor1-link = Bryan A. Garner | title = Black's Law Dictionary | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sgNfDwAAQBAJ | series = Black's Law, 9th Edition | volume = 1 | edition = 9 | location = St. Paul, Minnesota | publisher = West Publishing, Inc | publication-date = 2009 | page = 318 | isbn = 9780314199492 | access-date = 20 Apr 2019 | quote = "2. A corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, trust, fund, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not, and (in an official capacity) any receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, or similar official, or liquidating [[Law of agency|agent]], for any of the foregoing. Investment Company Act 2(a)(8)(15 USCA 80a-2(a)(8))." }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="Black's">[[Black's Law Dictionary]]. Second Pocket Edition. Bryan A. Garner, editor. West. 2001.</ref>

* '''An [[unlimited company]] with or without a share capital''': A hybrid entity, a company where the liability of members or shareholders for the debts (if any) of the company are not limited. In this case, the doctrine of a veil of incorporation does not apply.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

* '''[[Royal charter|CharterRoyal charter corporations]]''': BeforeIn middle-ages Europe, before the passing of modern companies legislation, these were the only types of companies.{{dubiouscn|date=JulyFebruary 20182023}}<!-- even in the ancient Roman Republic? see [[Corporation#History]] --> Now they are relatively rare, except for very old companies that still survive (of which there are still many, particularly many British banks), or modern societies that fulfill a quasi-regulatory function (for example, the [[Bank of England]] is a corporation formed by a modern charter).