Definition of Corporation

[erchess]

A continuing education self study I am doing contains the following quote. "A corporation is a company formed by two or more shareholders who contribute capital in return for a share of the business's profits."

I thought a corporation could be formed by a single individual. I thought the contributions of shareholders in exchange for stock were not limited to capital and could be anything including labor or expertise that was acceptable to the other initial owners. I thought that the exchange was for stock and that what the stock entitled the holder to could be anything that was acceptable to the other initial purchasers as long as certain proprieties such as different classes of stock were maintained if needed. Am I wrong or is this a very misleading statement that should make me leery of this course? It is from CPE Professionals Publishing Group and this is my first course from them.

[Gary2]

Taken out of context, I'm not prepared to say that it should make you leery of the course. You're correct that it's technically wrong, but it's not uncommon for teaching material to introduce a concept with a a definition that's oversimplified and technically incorrect.

Do the course materials repeat the mistake in other contexts, e.g., are there questions for which they say the correct answer is "that's not a corporation because there's only one owner"?

[appelman]

Well, it doesn't exactly give you confidence.

Sounds closer to a definition of a partnership.

[ChEAr$]

Sounds to me like some bank loan officer wrote the question, ifyouknowwhatImean.

[erchess]

TY All

I am mainly glad to know the definition of a corp has not changed on me. I am going to complete the course before I post any more and if the course ends up striking me as outstandingly good or bad I will post either at the end of this thread or in a new one.