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RESEARCH FAQs:
BUSINESS INFORMATION |
| The Law Library Staff prepares "Research Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) for the convenience of our users to provide access to a variety of sources addressing particular points of law. These are general legal information sources, and are not to be construed as a substitute for personal legal advice from an attorney. Please seek legal counsel to help you determine the applicability of any of the information in these resources to your specific situation. The Law Library makes no recommendation as to whether you should purchase any services offered by the websites contained in this FAQ. |
See also our Research FAQ on Public Records.
I. General Tips
Competitive intelligence can take many forms. You may want to uncover find information for litigation, competition, contracts, mergers & acquisitions, business & client development, headhunting, market analysis, industry studies, or other purposes. Depending on what type of information you need, here are a few general places to look for corporate competitive intelligence.
A. Court Cases
- Businesses often sue other businesses, employees, and others. They also get sued all of the time. Make sure to look for litigation over breaches of contract, trade secrets, unfair competition, non-competition clauses, real estate, intellectual property, ownership rights, discrimination, and many other causes of action. You will also want to search for lawsuits, including divorce cases, involving corporate executives and shareholders. These cases can be a great source of competitive intelligence.
For information on how to find cases, see our Research FAQ on How to Find an Ohio Case.
- Corporate bankruptcies can also provide valuable corporate and financial information. These cases can be a great source of competitive intelligence.
For information on how to find bankruptcies, see our Research FAQ on Bankruptcy Law.
B. Social Media
- Depending on privacy settings, businesses and their principals (incorporators, owners, shareholders, partners, etc.) may unwittingly share a lot of business information on social media sites such as
LinkedIn (business and professional networking site), Facebook, YouTube (video-sharing site), Twitter (micro-blogging site), SlideShare (slide and presentation-sharing site), Instagram (photograph and video-sharing site), and blogs. The well-known magazine called Time has prepared a list of the 25 Best Financial Blogs.
C. Web Sites
- Businesses love to brag about what they do so do not forget the obvious: make sure to check corporate web sites for valuable competitive intelligence. Check the “About,” “Contact,” “News,” and “Press Releases” links first.
- To find historical web pages that businesses may have removed from their web sites, try the WayBackMachine, which is an Internet archive of web pages.
D. Employee Complaints
- See what employees are saying publicly about businesses at glassdoor.com.
- Yelp (reviews about all types of businesses).
E. Maps & Aerial Views
II. Business Directories
A. Free Internet Resources
- Hoovers Online “Free Site”: This free web site contains locations, executives, industries, and basic risk categories. (Public and private companies).
- Reference USA: This database is a free directory of information for 25 million U.S. businesses. Business listings include such data as company names, phone numbers, complete addresses, key executive names, SIC Codes, employee size, sales volume, geo-codes for mapping, contact details, franchise and brand information, news, liens, judgments and bankruptcies, and credit rating scores. (Private and public companies) (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- LinkedIn: Browse companies for free by name or industry.
- Forbes Lists: Forbes provides free lists of the following types of businesses:
- Global 2000 Leading Companies
- America's Most Trustworthy Companies
- America's Best Small Companies
- World's Most Innovative Companies
- America's Largest Private Companies
- Asia's Best Under A Billion
- Asia's Fab 50 Companies
- America's Most Promising Companies
- Most Valuable Brands
- Most Innovative Growth Companies
- Small Business Administration Directory: The SBA maintains a free, searchable directory of companies that register to receive benefits or qualify for contracts.
- ThomasNet: ThomasNet provides a free directory of over 700,000 industrial and commercial suppliers. Search by company name, brand name, product, service or commodity.
- Federal Government Contractors Database (Includes former CCR): The federal government maintains a free, searchable database of federal government contractors.
- Kompass: This free database lists executives and corporate emails, as well as products and services, for companies in the United States and over 60 other countries. (Available from Cleveland Public Library).
- Yellow Pages: Yellow.com provides a free, searchable directory of businesses that will supply an addresses, phone numbers, types of businesses, and links to web sites and directions.
- Entrepreneur Franchise 500: Entrepreneur provides a free list of America’s top 500 franchise opportunities.
B. Fee-Based Services
- D&B Online: An online report from D&B can include a private or public company’s industry codes, profile, history, credit and stress ratings, family tree, financial statements, court and UCC filings, industry information, and much more.
- Hoovers Online: An online report from Hoover’s can include a private or public company’s industry codes, profile, history, business overview, executives and board members, key competitors, financials, industry information, products and operations, and ratings.
- Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg offer business directories online. The Cleveland Law Library subscribes to various business databases, including Smartlinx from Lexis. A Smartlinx business report can include: location and contact information; name variations; corporate status, executives; registered agents; state of incorporation and charter number; business associates; liens; judgments; real property; UCC filings; and much more.
III. Profiles, Financials and Annual Reports
A. Free Internet Resources
- Reference USA: This database is a free searchable database of information for 25 million U.S. businesses. Business listings include such data as company names, phone numbers, complete addresses, key executive names, SIC Codes, employee size, sales volume, geo-codes for mapping, contact details, franchise and brand information, news, liens, judgments and bankruptcies, and credit rating scores. (Private and public companies) (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- Mergent: This free database provides company profiles, histories, annual reports, financial statements, bond and dividend information, news, and EDGAR SEC filings for U.S. and international companies. (Available from Cleveland Public Library).
- Reference USA: This database is a free directory of information for 25 million U.S. businesses. Business listings include such data as company names, phone numbers, complete addresses, key executive names, SIC Codes, employee size, sales volume, geo-codes for mapping, contact details, franchise and brand information, news, liens, judgments and bankruptcies, and credit rating scores. (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ NetAdvantage: This database provides corporate records, industry surveys, stock and bond guides, dividend records, earnings guides, mutual fund reports, and other reports. (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- Morningstar Investment Research Center: This free database provides stock reports, fund reports, analyses, and ratings. (Available from
Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- BBB: The BBB maintains a free searchable database of information on business and charities, including many that are not even BBB members. Information can include: contact and location information, executives, owners, managers, alternate business names, BBB accreditation rating, customer complaint data, customer reviews and statistical summaries, government actions, and more.
- Business Insights: Essentials: This database provides company histories, business rankings, and much more. (Available from Cleveland Public Library).
- Edgar: This free searchable database from the Securities and Exchange Commission provides S-8 securities registration statements, prospectuses, proxies, periodic reports (10-K and 10-Q), changes in materials status (8-K’s). These documents can show executives and their compensation, material events and legal proceedings, property ownership, changes in security ownership, and much more.
- Reuters.com: This site provides company overviews, key developments, stock quotes, summary financial information and news for public companies.
- The Public Register Online: This site provides online access to free annual reports for over 5,000 public companies.
- The Public Register: This site provides free print copies of annual reports (by mail) for public companies.
- Morningstar: This site provides profiles, financials, EDGAR SEC reports and news for public companies.
- AnnualReports.com: This site provides free online access to annual reports for public companies.
- If you know on which stock exchange a public company’s stock is traded, you can obtain profile information for that company on the web page for the stock exchange. See: New York Stock Exchange; NASDQ; and American Stock Exchange (now know as NYSE MKT).
B. Fee-Based Services
- D&B Online: An online report from D&B can include a private or public company’s industry codes, profile, history, credit and stress ratings, family tree, financial statements, court and UCC filings, industry information, and much more.
- Mergent Online: Mergent provides business and financial information on global, publicly and privately-listed companies, including descriptive and fundamental information, pricing and corporate action data, and terms and conditions data on corporate and municipal bonds.
- Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg offer business databases. The Cleveland Law Library subscribes to SmartLinx Business Reports from Lexis. A Smartlinx business report can include: location and contact information; name variations; corporate status, executives; registered agents; state of incorporation and charter number; business associates; liens; judgments; real property; UCC filings; and much more.
- Investext is available from both Lexis and Westlaw.
- Accurint from Lexis: For a subscription fee, this site provides data on businesses.
- S&P Global Market Intelligence: For a subscription fee, this site compiles information on businesses, markets and industries.
IV. Researching Private Companies
A. Free Internet Resources
- Hoovers Online: This free web site contains locations, executives, industries and basic risk categories.
- Forbes: America’s Largest Private Companies: Forbes provides a free Internet directory of the Country’s largest private companies, with general information on their industries, revenue, key executives, and numbers of employees.
B. Fee-Based Services
- D&B Online: An online report from D&B can include a private company’s industry codes, profile, history, credit and stress ratings, family tree, financial statements, court and UCC filings, industry information, and much more.
- Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg offer business information databases, as does PrivCo and Bureau van Dijk.
V. Researching Non-Profits and Charities
A. Free Internet Resources
- Ohio Attorney General: The Ohio Attorney General provides a free database of non-profits and charities that can provide contact information, status, type, tax exempt status, purpose, board members and trustees, and figures for revenue, expenses, and assets.
- National Center for Charitable Statistics: The NCCS provides a free database of non-profits and charities that can provide contact information, status, type, tax exempt purpose, programs, board members and trustees, revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities, and some tax returns.
- Guidestar.org: Guidestar.org provides free access to contact and location information, names of executives and board members, annual revenue and expense data, tax returns, FEINs and reviews for many non-profits.
- BBB’s give.org Site: The BBB maintains a free site called give.org which accredits charities and tracks complaints.
- The Foundation Center: The Foundation Center offers a free, online directory of grantmakers.
- Charitynavigator.org: This site provides free, independent evaluations of many charities.
- IRS: The IRS provides a free searchable database of businesses that can receive tax deductible contributions, whose tax exemptions have been revoked, or who have filed 990 Tax Returns.
- National Association of State Charity Officials: NASCO maintains a list of state offices that regulate charitable organizations and solicitations.
VI. Trade and Industry Publications
Trade and industry publications publish articles about businesses when companies acquire assets, buy and sell other companies, change leadership, introduce new products, or disclose financial information. Executives also give interviews, and business leaders and managers often write articles about their company innovations and successes. A few good sources for these types of publications are listed below.
A. Free Internet Resources
B. Fee-Based Services
- Factiva from Dow Jones: This web site provides access to thousands of news and information sources, including The Wall Street Journal, Barro’s, MarketWatch, DJ Newswires, and much more.
- Financial Times: This site provides world business, finance and political news.
- Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg offer access to trade and industry publications. The Cleveland Law Library purchases access to various databases, including The Wall Street Journal, Barrons, MarketWatch, Financial Times, and many others.
- ProQuest: This service offers scholarly and trade publications in many topics, including business.
- Dialog from ProQuest: This database compiles business-related news, trade press articles, magazine articles, newsletters, scholarly business journals and other business publications.
VII. Specific Types of Information
A. State and Local Government Filings
- Ohio Secretary of State Business Filing Portal: The Ohio SOS provides a free searchable directory of domestic and foreign businesses, trusts and churches. Coverage specifically includes for-profit corporations, non-profits, professional associations, LLCs, LLPs, LPs, foreign corporations, foreign name registrations, business trusts, real estate trusts, churches, fictitious names, trade names, trade marks, service marks, marks of ownership, and name reservations. Information can include: official names and DBAs; contact information; fictitious names; prior names; charter numbers; current status; and names of incorporators, officers, and statutory agents; and more.
- Ohio Secretary of State UCC Search: The Ohio SOS maintains a free searchable UCC database of debtors and creditors involved in secured transactions. Searching is available by secured party, debtor or financing statement number.
- National Association of Secretaries of State: Free links to SOS UCC Filing Databases.
- Ohio Secretary of State Trade Mark/Service Mark Search: The Ohio SOS maintains a free, searchable database of Trademarks and Service Marks.
- State Business Permits and Licenses: Businesses often need state and/or local permits or licenses to operate. One example includes the Ohio License Center (Search by business name or DBA).
- Local Business Permits, Licenses an Contracts: Although not all local information is available on the Internet, you may want to call local offices that might cover the business you are researching to check on local business permits and licenses. Here are some examples of web sites in Cuyahoga County:
- Real Property Records: In Cuyahoga County, you can search for real property ownership at two sites maintained by the County Fiscal Office
- Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office (formerly Auditor)
- Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office (formerly Recorder): information available can include deeds for property owned, partnership information, leases, mechanic’s liens, notices of commencements, federal tax liens, Bureau of Employment liens, unemployment compensation liens, workers compensation liens, EPA liens, and much more.
B. Other Agency Information
- Ohio Attorney General/Consumer Complaints: The Ohio AG maintains a free, searchable database of consumer complaints about businesses. Search by company name or key words.
- Ohio’s Secretary of State also provides a list of debarred contractors.
- There may be other agencies that possess information which could be relevant to your research. For example:
C. Agency Decisions and Orders
- There are many agency decisions or orders that may affect a business you want to research. Depending on the company or issue involved, you may want to check out a few of these:
D. SEC Filings (Public Companies)
- Edgar: This free searchable database from the Securities and Exchange Commission provides S-8 securities registration statements, prospectuses, proxies, periodic reports (10-K and 10-Q), changes in materials status (8-K’s), and other forms. These documents can show executives and their compensation, material events and legal proceedings, property ownership, changes in security ownership, stock transfer agents, and much more.
- Mergent: This free database provides company profiles, histories, annual reports, financial statements, bond and dividend information, news, and EDGAR SEC filings for U.S. and international companies. (Available from Cleveland Public Library).
- Sec Info: This site provides a free alternative for searching Securities and Exchange Commission filings from the EDGAR database.
- Lexis® Securities Mosaic® Resource Center: This database covers federal regulatory and disclosure information, including SEC filings, comment letters, no-action letters, and much more.
E. EPA Compliance
- ECHO: The EPA maintains a free searchable database of company compliance with environmental regulations.
- Ohio EPA: The Ohio EPA maintains a free searchable database of company environmental compliance documents.
F. OSHA Inspections
- Data & Statistics: The Department of Labor provides free, searchable access to OSHA inspections that have been conducted since 1972. You can search by entity, industry code, activity numbers, and other options.
G. Contracts
- CORI Contracts Database: This site from the University of Missouri offers free access to a searchable database of 690,000 contracts, most of which come from public disclosure filings or in filings with a regulatory agency. (Registration is free).
- Contracts could be attached to documents that are filed in court, such as complaints, briefs, or depositions. For public companies, they could also be contained in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. See Edgar and discussion above.
- Collective bargaining agreements that businesses execute with unions are harder to find, but they can provide insight into company operations.
- The U.S. Department of Labor maintains an online database of available private and public sector agreements.
- The IRLE Library from the University of California, Berkeley, provides a free clearinghouse of collective bargaining agreements.
- Rutgers University Libraries also maintain a free database of collective bargaining agreements.
H. Intellectual Property: Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights
I. Banks and Bank Holding Companies
- Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council: This site provides a central repository of data about banks and other institutions for which the Federal Reserve has a supervisory, regulatory, or research interest, including both domestic and foreign banking organizations operating in the United States.
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: This site provides a free directory of banks and bank holding companies, including locations, histories, FDIC status, mergers, financial reports, market share information, demographic data, and industry information.
J. Insurance Companies
- Oho Department of Insurance: Ohio’s DOI maintains a free searchable database of insurance companies that are authorized to transact business in Ohio. Information includes contact information, state of domicile, type of insurance carrier, and NAIC number.
K. Credit Unions
L. Stock Quotes and Information
- Google Finance: This site provides free stock quotes and information.
- Yahoo Finance: This site provides free quote lookup.
- MSN Money: This site offers stock company reports and a stock screener.
- Big Quotes from MarketWatch: This site provides a quote search.
- Morningstar Online: This site provides a lot of free stock information.
- Reuters: This site provides free stock quotes and other information, summary financial information and news for public companies.
- If you know on which stock exchange a public company’s stock is traded, you can obtain profile information for that company on the web page for the stock exchange. See: New York Stock Exchange; NASDQ; and American Stock Exchange (now know as NYSE MKT).
- Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ NetAdvantage: This database provides corporate records, industry surveys, stock and bond guides, dividend records, earnings guides, mutual fund reports, and other reports. (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
- Morningstar Investment Research Center: This free database provides stock reports, fund reports, analyses, and ratings. (Available from
Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
M. Ratings
1. Free Internet Resources
2. Fee-Based Services
- Hoovers Online: An online report from Hoover’s can include a private or public company’s industry codes, profile, history, business overview, executives and board members, key competitors, financials, industry information, products and operations, and ratings.
N. Mergers & Acquisitions
1. Free Internet Resources
- M&A Source Express: This site provides some free information on the “lower middle market.”
B. Fee-Based Services
- Mergermarket: For a fee, mergermarket.com provides merger & acquisition intelligence and analysis.
O. Industry Codes
- SIC Codes
- NAICS Codes
- Websters Online: Search companies for free to find their SIC and/or NAICS codes.
- SICCODE.com: For free, find out the SIC or NAICS code for a particular company.
- Reference USA: This database is a free directory of information for 25 million U.S. businesses. Business listings include such data as company names, phone numbers, complete addresses, key executive names, SIC Codes, employee size, sales volume, geo-codes for mapping, contact details, franchise and brand information, news, liens, judgments and bankruptcies, and credit rating scores. (Private and public companies) (Available from Cleveland Public Library; also available from Cuyahoga County Public Library).
P. Campaign Contributions & Lobbyists
- Ohio Secretary of State: The Ohio SOS offers a free, searchable database by contributor, candidate, committee, date range, or entity type.
- OpenSecrets.org: This site tracks company spending on federal campaign contributions and lobbying. It also provides analysis of money in politics.
- FollowTheMoney.org: FollowTheMoney tracks political contributions by individuals and businesses in all 50 states.
- Federal Election Commission: This site provides free information about PACs and federal political contributions.
Q. CEO and Executive Salaries
- Salary.com: This site provides a free search engine for finding executive salaries by company or executive name. Information provided can include salaries, bonuses, stock grants, stock options and other types of compensation.
- Edgar: For public companies, this free searchable database from the Securities and Exchange Commission provides S-8 securities registration statements, prospectuses, proxies, periodic reports (10-K and 10-Q). These documents can show executives and their compensation.
- AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch
- ERI Economic Research Institute: This site provides free salary surveys for companies and non-profits.
- Compdatasurveys: For a fee, this site will provide general executive compensation surveys by industry, company size and revenue.
R. CEO Biographies
- CEO Watch: This site profiles CEOs and their companies.
- Trade and industry publications are a good place to find this information. See further discussion of resources at Section VI above.
S. News
1. Free Internet Resources
2. Fee-Based Services
- The Wall Street Journal: For a subscription, this journal offers a wealth of business information.
- Factiva from Dow Jones: This web site provides access to thousands of news and information sources, including The Wall Street Journal, Barro’s, MarketWatch, DJ Newswires, and much more.
- Financial Times: This site provides world business, finance and political news.
- Fortune: For a subscription, Fortune 500 provides articles on its Daily & Breaking Business News page.
- Time: For a subscription, Time offers access to worldwide business news.
- Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg all offer comprehensive business news resources.
- Dialog from ProQuest: This database compiles business-related news, trade press articles, magazine articles, newsletters, scholarly business journals and other business publications.
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Created on:
June 27, 2006 -
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