Holding company

A holding company primarily owns shares or other interests in companies it controls or influences, rather than selling goods or services itself.

Parent company: A company that controls one or more other companies through ownership or other means. A holding company is a parent company when its stakes give it control.
Conglomerate: A corporation that operates businesses in multiple, often unrelated, industries. A holding company can coordinate a conglomerate’s businesses through ownership.
Operating company: A company whose principal activity is producing or selling goods or services. Unlike a holding company, it conducts the business activities directly.
Corporate tax: A tax imposed on the income or profits of corporations. Tax rules can determine how earnings move between a holding company and its subsidiaries.
Joint-stock company: A company whose capital is divided into shares held by multiple investors. Share ownership made it possible to assemble capital and control businesses through corporate stakes.
Subsidiary: A company controlled by another company, known as its parent. Subsidiaries are the entities a holding company may own and govern.
Bank holding company: A company that owns or controls one or more banks and is subject to banking regulation. This regulated form uses ownership to organize banking and related activities.
Joint venture: A business arrangement in which parties share ownership, control, and risks for a defined undertaking. A joint venture is a shared enterprise, not simply a parent’s ownership structure.
Transfer pricing: The pricing of transactions between entities under common ownership or control. Intragroup payments can shift profits and face rules requiring arm’s-length pricing.
Trust (business monopoly): A business arrangement that combined control of multiple firms under trustees, often to limit competition. Nineteenth-century trusts helped prompt legal responses that shaped modern corporate ownership.

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