Final answer:
A public company is owned by shareholders who have the usual rights of ownership, including voting and incurring profits or losses.
Step-by-step explanation:
A public company is owned by shareholders who have the usual rights of ownership, including the right to vote and incur profits or losses. Shareholders are individuals who own a share of a corporation and invest capital in the company. They can vote for a board of directors who hire top executives to run the firm on a day-to-day basis based on the number of shares they own. The more stock a shareholder owns, the more votes they are entitled to cast for the company's board of directors.