From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpublic companyˌpublic ˈcompany noun [countable] BBCa company that offers its shares for sale on the stock exchange SYN public corporation American English
Examples from the Corpus
public company• In a public company, the value is the market price of the stock.• By s. 282 of the 1985 Act every public company must have at least two directors.• The price to pay for picking up the public asset should be respect for the pension rights of the public company employees.From Longman Business Dictionarypublic companyˌpublic ˈcompany1COMMERCEa company owned by people or other companies, rather than by the government2 (also publicly held company)FINANCE a company whose shares are openly traded → company 