Wholly Owned Subsidiary

Wholly owned subsidiary

A subsidiary whose parent company owns virtually 100% of its common stock.

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wholly owned subsidiary

A company that is totally owned by another company. For example, American Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of AMR Corp. A wholly owned subsidiary may have publicly traded preferred stock and debt, but all of its common stock is owned by a parent company and is unavailable for purchase.

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Wholly Owned Subsidiary

A company that, while theoretically publicly-traded, has all of its common stock owned by a single company. Some wholly owned subsidiaries belong to the same industry as the parent company, while others do not, and are part of a diversification effort on the part of the parent company. A wholly owned subsidiary's board of directors is directly appointed by the parent company, and is ultimately responsible to the shareholders of the parent company. Some wholly owned subsidiaries were once part of the parent company but were spun off, while others were smaller companies bought outright by their parent companies. See also: Holding company.