Final answer:
A privately held corporation does not offer its stock publicly, while a publicly held corporation offers its stock to the public and can have many stockholders.
Step-by-step explanation:
A corporation is a business that is owned by shareholders who have limited liability for the company's debt but share in its profits (and losses). Corporations may be private or public, and may or may not have publicly traded stock. There are two types of corporations: privately held and publicly held.
A privately held corporation does not offer its stock for public sale and usually has few stockholders. This means that the ownership of the company is limited to a small group of people, such as the founders, family members, or a small group of investors.
On the other hand, a publicly held corporation offers its stock for public sale and can have thousands of stockholders. This means that the ownership of the company is spread among a large number of individuals or institutional investors, such as mutual funds or pension funds.