A modern corporate office building in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal 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:

• voluntary associations, which may include nonprofit organizations
• business entities, whose aim is generating profit
• financial entities and banks
• programs or educational organisations.

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 duty according to the publicly declared incorporation, or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations.

Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups.

Meanings and definitions

One can define a company as an "artificial person", invisible, intangible, created by or under law,^[1] with a discrete legal personality, perpetual succession, and a common seal. Except for some senior positions, companies remain unaffected by the death, insanity, or insolvency of an individual member.

Etymology

The English word company has its origins in the Old French term compagnie (first recorded in 1150), meaning a "society, friendship, intimacy; body of soldiers",^[2] which came from the Late Latin word companio ("one who eats bread with you"), first attested in the Lex Salica (Englis

A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal 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:

• voluntary associations, which may include nonprofit organizations
• business entities, whose aim is generating profit
• financial entities and banks
• programs or educational organisations.

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 duty according to the publicly declared incorporation, or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations.

Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups.

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 duty according to the publicly declared incorporation, or published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations.

Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups.