A privately held company is a company which is not publicly listed on a stock market and consequently cannot be openly bought or sold. Often it is owned by a family or a small group of shareholders. Private companies are often small, but some are amongst the largest companies in the world.^[1] Many public companies started life as private companies. In the United States, private companies are held to different auditing standards than are public companies.^[2] Private companies do not have to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).^[3] This makes it harder to find financial information on private companies.

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