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Sole Proprietorship
a business that is owned (and usually operated) by one person
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Unlimited Liability
a legal concept that holds a business owner personally responsible for all that debts of the business
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Partnership
a voluntary association of two or more persons to act as co-owners of a business for profit
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General Partner
a person who assumes full or shared responsibility for operating a business
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General Partnership
a business co-owned by two or more general partners who are liable for everything the business does
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Limited Partner
a person who contributes capital to a business but has no management responsibility or liability for losses beyond the amount he or she invested in the partnership
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Limited Partnership
a business co-owned by one or more general partners who manage the business and limited partners who invest money in it
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Master Limited Partnership (MLP)
a business partnership that is owned and managed like a corporation but often taxed like a partnership
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Corporation
an artificial person created by law with most of the legal rights of a real person, including the rights to start and operate a business, to buy or sell property, to borrow money, to sue or be sued, and to enter into binding contracts
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Stock
the shares of ownership of a corporation
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Stockholder
a person who owns a corporation's stock
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Closed Corporation
a corporation whose stock is owned by relatively few people and is not sold to the general public
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Open Corporation
a corporation whose stock can be bought and sold by any individual
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Domestic Corporation
a corporation in a state in which it is incorporated
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Foreign Corporation
a corporation in any state in which it does business except the one in which it is incorporated
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Alien Corporation
a corporation chartered by a foreign government and conducting business in the United States
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Common Stock
stock owned by individuals or firms who may vote on corporate matters but whose claims on profit and assets are subordinate to the claims of others
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Preferred Stock
stock owned by individuals or firms who usually do not have voting rights but whose claims on dividends are paid before those of common-stock owners
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Dividend
a distribution of earnings to the stockholders of a corporation
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Proxy
a legal form listing issues to be decided at a stockholders' meeting and enabling stockholders to transfer their voting rights to some other individual or individuals
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Board of Directors
the top governing body of a corporation, the members of which are elected by the stockholders
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Corporate Officers
the chairmen of the board, president, executive vice presidents, corporate secretary, treasurer, and any other top executive appointed by the board of directors
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Limited Liability
a feature of corporate ownership that limits each owner's financial liability to the amount of money that he or she has paid for the corporation's stock
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S-Corporation
a corporation that is taxed as though it were a partnership
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Limited-Liability Company (LLC)
a form of business ownership that combines the benefits of a corporation and a partnership while avoiding some of the restrictions and disadvantages of those forms of ownership
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Government-Owned Corporation
a corporation owned and operated by a local, state, or federal government
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Not-For-Profit Corporation
a corporation organized to provide a social, educational, religious, or other service rather than to earn a profit
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Cooperative
an association of individuals or firms whose purpose is to perform some business function for it's members
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Joint Venture
an agreement between two or more groups to form a business entity in order to achieve a specific goal or to operate for a specific period of time
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Syndicate
a temporary association of individuals or firms organized to perform a specific task that requires a large amount of capital
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Merger
the purchase of one corporation by another
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Hostile Takeover
a situation in which the management and board of directors of a firm targeted for acquisition disapprove of the merger
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Tender Offer
an offer to purchase the stock of a firm targeted for acquistion at a price just high enough to tempt stockholders to sell their shares
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Proxy Fight
a technique used to gather enough stockholder votes to control a targeted company
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Leveraged Buyout (LBO)
a purchase arrangement that allows a firm's managers and employees or a group of investors to purchase the company
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