auditing standards than public companies, overseen by the Private Company Counsel division of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.(see external links) Researching private companies and private companies' financials in the United States can involve contacting the secretary of state for the state of incorporation (or for LLC or partnership, state of formation), or using specialized private company databases such as Dun & Bradstreet. Other companies, like Sageworks, provide aggregated data on privately held companies, segmented by industry code. Privately held companies also sometimes have restrictions on how many shareholders they may have. For example, the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, section 12(g), limits a privately held company, generally, to fewer than 2000 shareholders, and the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, requires registration of investment companies that have more than 100 holders. In Australia, section 113 of the Corporations Act 2001 limits a privately held company to fifty non-employee shareholders. Privately owned enterprise A privately owned enterprise is a commercial enterprise owned by private investors, shareholders or owners (usually collectively, but they can be owned by a single individual), and is in contrast to state institutions, such as publicly owned enterprises and government agencies. Private enterprises comprise the private sector of an economy. An economic system that 1) contains a large private sector where privately run businesses are the backbone of the economy, and 2) a business surplus is controlled by the owners, is referred to as capitalism. This contrasts with socialism, where the industry is owned by the state or by all of the community in common. The act of taking assets into the private sector is referred to as privatization. A privately owned enterprise is one form that private property may take. Types of privately owned businesses Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others. The owner of the business has total and unlimited personal liability for the debts incurred by the business. This form is usually relegated to small businesses. Partnership: A partnership is a form of business in which two or more people operate for the common goal of making a profit. Each partner has total and unlimited personal liability for the debts incurred by the partnership. There are three typical different types of classifications for partnerships: general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships. Corporation: A business corporation