Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Term of the day: GmbH

I have seen companies like Bosch officially listed as "Robert Bosch, GmbH" and always wondered about the GmbH on the end. I have seen Inc, LLC, PC, B-Corp, etc and know what those mean but couldn't figure out what the GmbH could possibly mean. I just didn't care enough to look it up until today. And now you too can be a little bit smarter:
In Germany, there are two types of companies: publicly traded and privately held.
The acronym 'GmbH', which is written after the name of the company, designates a company as private in Germany. The letters stand for Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung which, translated literally, means a 'company with limited liability'. GmbH companies are incorporated and, as such, are legal entities unto themselves. These companies must have a minimum of two partners and may be, but do not have to be, owned by a public company.

-Investopedia accessed on 15 Mar 2017: http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/05/051305.asp
And knowing is half the battle.