Mates,
Many Mitchell history buffs have, at one time or another, run across the name Mitchell S.A France.
Does anyone know what the S.A. stands for? Was this the same as Mitchell of France?
Thank You in advance for your help.
Kind Regards,
Bill
I did an internet search on it. It stands for Societe Anonyme - Anonymous Society. There are a couple of accents in the words that I am unable to add without changing keyboard languages.
German Companies often use GmbH. It stands for Gesellshaft mit beschraenker Haftung. Translation is company with limited liability. In other words, limited or Ltd. In English. The two capital letters are nouns. All nouns in German are capitalized.
I got this from the net, I am not an expert in German, but I can speak some. I was posted there for 4 years, when I was in the military. I left in 1978. I still converse in that language with a lady at work and another in my church so I am getting back into it. I speak much better French, also from the military, They had me take classes.
I thought it might be interesting to post from Wikipedia an explanation of the anonymous part of Société Anonyme.
Originally, shareholders could be literally anonymous and collect dividends by surrendering coupons attached to their share certificates. Dividends were therefore paid to whoever held the certificate. Share certificates could be transferred privately, and therefore the management of the company would not necessarily know who owned its shares.
... Nowadays, shareholders of S.A.s are not anonymous, though shares can still be held by a holding company in order to obscure the beneficiary.
Jonn and Glen,
Thank you so much for your responses, they are quite interesting and informative.
Bit by bit, step by step we peel back the Mitchell mysteries.
Kind Regards,
Bill