Italian term (edited): societa� per azioni

A "Societa per azioni" is analogous to an American corporation.

A "Societa a responsabilita limitata" is the equivalent of a joint stock company with limited liability.

A "Societa in nome collettivo" is a general partnership whose members have unlimited liability for all its obligations.

A "Societa semplice" is a simple partnership. This form of partnership need not be made public as long as there is an agreement between the partners.

"Societa cooperativa" is a cooperative society. This type of entity may be incorporated with a limited or unlimited liability, but the society's name must bear a qualification as to whether it is a limited or unlimited cooperative.

http://www.bitlaw.com/source/tmep/802_03.html

I'd have thought azioni were the shares and not the shareholders.

Limited co. is a misnomer: the co.'s liability is unltd. It's the shareholders' liability that's ltd. to the value of the called-up shares.

"Va osservato che nel Regno Unito tale tipo di società, il cui capitale sociale è suddiviso in azioni e in cui i soci sono responsabili limitatamente alla quota di capitale sottoscritto, può configurarsi come "public company" o come "private company". La prima ha una corrispondenza quasi completa con l'italiana S.p.a., la private company è più analoga alla "s.r.l" .

Source: F. Cesari, Dizionario multilingue dell'economia e della finanza, ISEDI