A public company has stocks that are traded publicly, so there are many people that own a stake in the company. Their financial statements are reported quarterly. Additionally, they are held to the legal standards of laws like Sarbanes-Oxley. An example of a very successful public company is Amazon with a revenue of $136 billion. Private companies have the ability to share profits with their employees in a way that is not possible for public companies. They do not publish their financial statements to the public and do not have to comply to Sarbanes-Oxley. A successful private company is Dell, with a Forbes estimate of $59 billion.