Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when a heavily regulated private company or industry becomes less regulated. Government functions and services may also be privatised (which may also be known as "franchising" or "out-sourcing"); in this case, private entities are tasked with the implementation of government programs or performance of government services that had previously been the purview of state-run agencies. Some examples include revenue collection, law enforcement, water supply, and prison management. Another definition is that privatization is the sale of a state-owned enterprise or municipally owned corporation to private investors; in this case shares may be traded in the public market for the first time, or for the first time since an enterprise's previous nationalization. This type of privatization can include the demutualization of a mutual organization, cooperative, or public-private partnership in order to form a joint-stock company. Separately, privatization can refer to the purchase of all outstanding shares of a publicly-traded company by private equity investors, which is more often called "going private". Before and after this process the company is privately owned, but after the buyout its shares are withdrawn from being traded at a public stock exchange. Etymology The term ‘privatizing’ first appeared in English, with quotation marks, in the New York Times, in April 1923, in a translation of a German speech referring to the potential for German state railroads to be bought by American companies. In German, the word Privatisierung has been used since at least the 19th-century. Ultimately, the word came to German through French from the Latin privatus. The term reprivatization, again translated directly from German (Reprivatisierung), was used frequently in the mid-1930s as the Economist reported on Nazi Germany's sale of nationalized banks back to public shareholders following the 1931 economic crisis. The word became common in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of Margaret Thatcher's economic policies. She was drawing on the work of the pro-privatization MP, David Howell, who was himself drawing on the Austrian-American management expert Peter Drucker's 1969 book, The Age of Discontinuity. Definition The word privatization may mean different things depending on the context in which it is used. It can mean moving something from the public sphere into the private sphere, but it