This entry is divided into the following sections:
I. Some Basics
When someone asks for information about a company, a complete answer will include (1) company profiles, (2) financial data, (3) news articles and (4) any other information particularly relevant to that company. I generally use the following sources, not necessarily in order, to compile a packet with a reasonable amounts of each kind of information.
It's useful to know whether a company is public or private before you start company research. There are many ways to do this. I usually check the D&B Million Dollar Directory, where a triangle before the company's name means it's public.
If you need to look up the meaning of a company's name extension (such as Ltd., B.V. N.V., etc.), visit the excellent page posted by CI: Corporate Information at www.corporateinformation.com/defext.asp.
II. Sources for U.S. Company Information
1. Print: Although most business research is done online, following are several useful and popular print sources to check, if you have them readily available.
Company Directories: The D&B Million Dollar Directory, Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Public and Private Companies and Standard & Poor's Register give you give you the exact company name, contact information, the names of a few top executives, the number of employee, SIC codes. The Register also provides basic biographical information on officers and directors. It's also available on Lexis and Westlaw.
Corporate Family Directories: The Directory of Corporate Affiliations and America's Corporate Families & International Affiliates tell you which tell you which companies own and are owned by other companies. These are both fairly good information sources, though neither directory is 100% reliable.
Note: The Directory of Corporate Affiliations is also available on Lexis (BUSREF;DCA), Westlaw (CORP-AF), Dialog (File 513) and by subscription (http://www.corporateaffiliations.com). The Lexis version has been at least two years behind; I'm not sure about the other online versions.
Company Profiles: Are published in Mergent Manuals (formerly "Moody's Manuals"), Hoover's Handbooks and the International Directory of Company Histories. Best's Insurance Reports provides profiles for insurance companies (see "Insurance Companies" and "Insurance Ratings"). These are also available online.
2. Lexis: Lexis offers a lot of almost every kind of available company information. As such, Lexis can function as a one-stop-shopping center for company research - or a source for almost any individual type of information. You can do this by using the individual databases, discussed below, or the specialized Company Dossier or Company Analyzer.
If you are searching individual databases and want to get maximum information as fast as possible, search the company name in COMPNY;COMPNY and MEGANW;ALLMGA. COMPNY;COMPNY will get you company profiles and SEC filings - plus biographies, bankruptcy records, M&A reports, Hoovers Reports, stock reports, etc. MEGANW;ALLMGA gets you newspaper and magazine articles from all the full-text periodicals on Lexis, which is the broadest and best collection available. For more targeted searching, limit your search with the "company" segment, for example: "company(international business machines)".
Alternatively, you can search for information more selectively. For example, I have had good results
searching "company(company name)" in COMPANY;USPUB for public companies or COMPNY;USPRIV for private companies. These files include a range of reports form the short ABI reports, which are similar to entries in the print directories, to full company profiles similar to Mergent's. The COMPNY;USCO file combines both USPUB and USPRIV, which is cost-effective if you are simultaneously searching for information on private and public companies.
Other useful Lexis business databases include: COMPNY;USABIZ (ABI Reports), COMPNY;BDE (Bankruptcy Reports), COMPNY;STKRPT (Stock Reports), COMPNY;IND (Industry Reports), COMPNY;SEC (SEC filings), COMPNY;XMULTX (Multex Analyst Reports) and COMPNY;INTXT or COMPNY;INVPRE (Investext Analyst Reports). Useful business-related databases include executive directories (see "Company Personnel"), Secretary of State records (see "Secretary of State Records"), cases (e.g., use MEGA;MEGA to search all U.S. and state courts), public records (e.g., real estate & judgments) and business finders (see "Finding Businesses"), news (MEGANW;ALLMGA for everything, MEGANW;90DMGA for news from the past 90 days or MEGANW;CURMGA for news from the past two years.
3. Westlaw: Westlaw's C0-PROFILE database provides a very good overview of public and large private companies. Data compiled includes not only basic company information but rankings, stock prices, sales, major shareholders, brand information, info on competitors and the industry and some news. In addition, the C0-RECSCAN database pulls together all the available public record filings for a company including title filings (for real estate, cars, aircraft), trademarks, bankruptcies, liens, judgments plus the number of employees, annual sales, registered agent, etc.
Westlaw also offers a broad range of news, analyst reports, SEC filings and other business databases.
4. Dialog: I tend to use the following procedure to get company information through Dialog (www.dialogweb.com): (1) go into the Company Finder (File 416) and type "E CO={company name}" (2) create a set (ex. "s e3 or e4 or e6") and then (3) get a report ("report s1/company"), which you can print screen for further reference. The report will tell you how many times the company name appears in each file. Then you can search the appropriate files as you wish.
Individual Dialog files are discussed in the separate entries for "Analyst Reports," "Market Research," "News - Newspapers and Magazines - Articles," "News - People, Products and Companies," "Press Releases" and many of the subject-specific entries.
5. D&B Reports: D&B (formerly "Dun & Bradstreet) Business Information Reports are technically credit reports, but they provide a wealth of information, including but not limited to detailed financials, payment records, suits/liens/judgments and a information about corporate officers. D&B Business Information Reports are often the best source for information about private companies. In addition, D&B "Family Tree Finder" reports are expensive but are the best source I know for identifying corporate affiliations. Both kinds of reports are available directly from D&B or through Accurint, Dialog, Lexis and Westlaw. To learn more about Dun & Bradstreet reports, see the separate entry for "Dun & Bradstreet Reports."
6. SEC Filings: For public companies selling securites in the U.S., get SEC filings, especially the most recent 10-K (annual report), 10-Q (quarterly report), proxy (annual notice to shareholders) and perhaps 8-Ks (reports of material events). For a more complete discussion of sources, see the Filings section of "Securities and Exchange Commission."
7. Public Records: A public records search on Accurint, KnowX, Lexis, Westlaw, etc., allows you to locate and retrieve a broad range of public records for a company. This includes Secretary of State filings, UCC filings, asset filings (for real estate, cars and aircraft), bankruptcies, liens, judgments, etc.
8. Private Publishing: Check out what people are saying about the company in blogs, listservs, social networks and RSS feeds using the sources in the "Search Engine" entry of this Guide.
9. Alacra: Alacra provides a useful gateway to dozens of key business databases including DataMonitor, Moody's, Fitch, Forrestor, EIU, etc.
10. Other Internet Sites: There are oodles of good Internet sites for business research. Since it would take too long to visit or even read about them all, the following is my attempt to put together a short list of particularly useful sites.
(a) The most important Internet site is usually the company's own site. I generally find these by searching Google, Bing and/or other search engines.
(b) Hoover's provides Hoover's Profiles, include free directory entries ("capsules") on supposedly thousands of public and private companies, plus financials and news on some companies. Subscribers get much more comprehensive profiles. For non-subscribers, Hoover's comprehensive profiles are also available on Westlaw.
(c) The Better Business Bureau posts free "Business Reports" on companies in many metropolitan areas.
(d) Vault interviews employers of large companies to find out how the company is doing and what it's like to work there. Glassdoor posts comments from current and former emaployees.
(e) Morningstar does "Snapshots" of all U.S. public companies, including financials & news.
(f) Business and Company ASAP is a good index of business- and company-related news articles. (Note: The index is available for free for library card holders through some public library Web sites, including
the New York Public Library's.
(g) Intellectual Property Databases posted free on the Web will let you find out if the company owns trademarks, copyrights or patents. See "Trademarks," "Copyrights," "Patents - U.S." and/or "Patents - Foreign."
(h) The Wall Street Transcript posts industry roundtables and interviews with Wall Street analysts, money managers, and top company executives.
(i) If you're not still worn out, Wall Street Research Net provides over 100,000 links to company research Web sites, and CorporateInformation provides many more.
Finally, if you have access to business databases through a school or public library, be sure to check out whatever is available. You're likely to find free access to some of the sources discussed above, and you may find others as well.
Some subjects of related interest:
BANKRUPTCY: If a company has declared bankruptcy, you can find a wealth of information in various Schedules, Statements, Motions and Plans. For an explanation of the key information sources in a bankruptcy case, what they contain and where you can get them, see Cost-Effective Research in U.S. Bankruptcy Law by Robert C. Richards, Jr. See also the "Bankruptcy" and "Docket Sheets" entries.
DEFUNCT COMPANIES: To find defunct companies, see "Finding Businesses."
OUTSIDE RESEARCHERS: Sometimes you don't have the time or resources to handle a research request. In this case, you might want to hire an outside expert. The researchers at NYPL Express (212-592-7200) have done excellent work for me, using primarily the extensive business resources of the New York Public Library. The researchers at Guideline (formerly Find/SVP) have experience with all kinds of business research, although they don't always work as quickly many attorneys would like.
PERSONAL FAVORITES: My favorite sources of company information are (1) Mergent company profile, which free and easy to get if it's on the shelf in hard copy, or if you have a subscription to Mergent Online, or available through your public library's online system and (2) (for public companies) the 10-K or annual report (see separate entry for "Annual Reports"), updated with the latest 10-Q, which provides most of the financial and much of the news information the attorneys are usually looking for (especially on new business requests).
PRIVATE COMPANIES: Generally when asked to get information on a private company I (1) get a D&B report (see "Dun and Bradstreet Reports"), (2) search the Internet using for a home page, plus anything else that turns up and (3) search a relevant news database (see "Business Information"). Other possible sources to consult include: (4) Factiva or Dialog, in the Dun's Financial Records PLUS and D&B Market Identifiers databases; (5) Hoovers Online, which cover big private companies; (6) CorporateInformation, which collects links for getting information on private companies; (7) Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies or the Million Dollar Directory; Experian's Smart Business Reports; (9) Forbes' list of the 500 largest private companies; and (10) the subscription-based OneSource Business Browser. For more ideas, see Investigating Private Companies and/or Hot to Find Out Who Owns a Small Business, both by Genie Tyburski.
LOANS AND BONDS: Extel Financial Cards list the companies outstanding loans and bonds. Extel is available on Dialog (File 500), Westlaw (EIFC) and Thomson Research . Also check out the company's debt rating using the sources in the entry for "Bond Ratings."
SUBSIDIARIES: Public companies file a list of their major subsidiaries on Exhibit 21 of Form 10-K. More detailed subsidiary lists are available from D&B, ReferenceUSA (if you don't have a subscription, you may have access through a public or academic library web site). Subsidiaries are also listed in the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, which is available in print, through through Lexis (BUSREF;DCA) and through the subscription-based CorporateAffiliations web site.
See also "Analyst Reports," "Annual Reports," "Banks," "Bond Prices," "Business Information," "Company Personnel," "Compensation," "Corporate Law," "Debt Ratings," "Doing Business in Foreign countries," "Dun & Bradstreet Reports," "Insurance Companies," "Market Research," "Mergers and Acquisitions," "News - People, Products and Companies," "Nonprofit Organizations," "Product Information," "Secretary of State Records," "Securities and Exchange Commission," "Stock Prices."
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Of course, not every company-related question requires you to compile a comprehensive report.
In some cases, you will just want to find the company or its affiliates. To do this, see "Finding Businesses" for U.S. companies. To find foreign companies, see the Foreign Companies section of this entry, below.
In some cases, you will just want find a company's executives, officers, directors, corporate counsel, etc., see "Company Personnel." To find shareholders, see entry for "Shareholders."
To find out where a company is licensed to do business or to get its articles of incorporation and other state filings, see "Secretary of State Records."
For sources listing family-friendly companies, see "Employee Benefits."
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III. Sources for Foreign Company Information
Following is a discussion of the general sources I've found useful for researching foreign companies. All country-specific information sources are discussed in the entries for each individual country.
Contact Information: To get an address and telephone number for a foreign company, look in Dun's Principal International Businesses, the International volume of The Directory of Corporate Affiliations (in paper, on Lexis or Dialog (File 513), D&B Duns Market Identifiers (Dialog File 516), or any other good foreign business directory you have available. Online, you can search the Kompass.com, the Dun & Bradstreet database for a GlobalSeek report, the Dun's Market Identifiers database Dialog (File 518) or an Internet foreign telephone directory (see "Telephone Numbers"). Westlaw claims its BUS-TRACK database is "the ultimate tool for locating and evaluating companies worldwide." You could also call NYPL Express or another business library and ask them to look in their directories. If you're really stuck, search the company's name in an Internet search engine and/or place a query on the BusLib-L discussion list.
Company Reports: You can get free 1-page reports on foreign companies from the Wright Research Center. Dialog has several regional company directories, including Asia (Files 505 and 592), Europe (File 523), and Western Europe (File 590); the INTLCO file searches them all at one. Lexis offers a database that allows you to search all of its foreign company report database at once (COMPNY;INTLCO). The Mergent International Manual provides excellent profiles of public companies from almost all foreign countries. Also, many foreign companies have D&B credit reports, which are often the best source of information for private companies (see "Dun & Bradstreet Reports"). SkyMinder provides reports from a wide collection of vendors. Some sources I haven't tried yet: ORBIS, Worldscope, Compustat Global (for financial data), Thomson ONE Banker,Capital IQ and Kompass.com.
Country-specific databases are discussed in the entries for individual countries.
For more detailed information on public companies you can get public filings (discussed below) and analyst reports, which consider the company with an eye to its stock value. See separate entry for "Analyst Reports."
Company Filings: Company filings may be posted on the Web sites of the company, the relevant stock exchange and/or the relevant foreign government agency. The subscription-based Pioneer database from Perfect Information provides a database of European and Asian company filings (www.perfectinfo.com). You could also call GSI Document Retrieval (800-669-1154) or another document retrieval service to pull filings from foreign countries. For companies that sell stock in the U.S., try to find the company's annual report (a 20-F if they file with the SEC in the U.S.).
See also the separate entry for "Annual Reports."
News: Lexis, Westlaw and Dialog all offer extensive collections of articles from foreign news sources. The Miller Freeman Industry and News Database (Dialog File 112) offers articles on European industries, companies and product developments, taken from European trade journals, with an emphasis on the U.K. (expand on "co=" to find company names).
Corporate Affiliations: For the corporate affiliations and locations of foreign companies, check the international volume of the Directory of Corporate Affiliations (available in print, on Lexis (BUSREF;DCA), Westlaw (CORP-AF), Dialog (File 513) and by subscription on CorporateAffiliations.com). Alternatively, the D&B Global Corporate Linkages database (directly from D&B or through Dialog (File 522) is expensive but it gives the best results I've found. Other options: Call NYPL Express, get an international D&B report and/or get an annual report (see "Annual Reports") or other filing from the company's web site or the relevant foreign government agency.
Company Web Sites: Generally you can find a company Web site using Google or another good search engine. Also, many company directories now provide Web addresses.
Offshore Businesses: KYC News (formerly the Offshore Business News and Research Service) sells information on incorporations civil lawsuits, bank & insurance licenses (granted or revoked), companies liquidated & more from the Cayman Islands, Bermuda & the Bahamas (with more hopefully coming soon). See also the entry for "Doing Business in Foreign Countries."
See also "Caribbean," "Doing Business in Foreign Countries" and individual countries by name.
Reference Sources: If you're still lost, or if you want a more systematic approach, you could look in International Information: How to Find It, How to Use It by Ruth Pagel.
