A corporation is an artificial person created by law, with most of the legal right to start and operate a business, to own property, to borrow money, to be sued or sue, and to enter into contracts. With the corporate form of ownership, stock can be sold to individuals to raise capital. The people who own a corporation's stock-and thus own part of the corporation-are called stockholders. Generally, corporations are classified as closed corporations ( few stockholders ) or open corporations ( many stockholder )