A partner is a member in a partnership, an entity in which both the profits or losses of a business or other venture are shared between all members. Corporations favor partnerships because of a taxation structure that eliminates dividend taxes upon the profits of owners.
In information technology, a partnership can indicate a relationship that extends beyond monetary considerations. For instance, one software maker might agree to integrate another company's product or service into their products or agree to support a common standard or protocol. Other partners may be aligned together for expressly non-profit goals, like sharing internal resources for disaster recovery, open source software development or digital education initiatives.
This was last updated in May 2007