Research Guides: Entrepreneurship: Profiles & Overviews

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Company overviews

PitchBook This link opens in a new window
Data and research covering the private investment market, including venture capital, private equity, and M&A transactions. Information on companies, deals, investors, and funds. Use PitchBook to establish benchmarks, identify and analyze competitors, and search investor details. [Global coverage]
The vendor of this resource may monitor, collect, store, and analyze Subscriber’s usage of the Services (“Subscriber’s Usage Data”) on both a Subscriber and individual User basis for the limited purposes of providing or improving the services.
S&P Capital IQ This link opens in a new window
Company intelligence database, including granular financial and capital structure information on companies worldwide. Company profiles contain data and graphs for historic stock prices, searchable SEC filings, mergers and acquisitions activities, and venture capital/private equity data. Also features biographic and professional connection information for business leaders. [Global coverage]
CB Insights This link opens in a new window
Global data and information about the financing activities of startup companies and investors, including venture capital firms, angel investors, as well as M&A and IPO activity. Specializing in emerging industries, the database also offers data-driven research reports, performance metrics related to company health, and data visualization and presentation tools. [Global coverage]
Users must create an account with their UCI email address. Download limits apply.
Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new window
Company directory database, powered by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). Includes profiles for public and private companies globally. Particularly useful for building a list of companies and for understanding parent/subsidiary relationships. [Global coverage]
MarketLine Advantage This link opens in a new window
At the bottom of the "Sign in" box, look for “If you have IP Access” and use the Click Here button to enter. Select public and large private company profiles, spanning most major industries worldwide. Profiles often include a detailed SWOT Analysis. [Global coverage]
Passport This link opens in a new window
Select public and large private company profiles worldwide, particularly for consumer goods and services. Many profiles include a brief SWOT Analysis. [Global coverage]
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Formerly LexisNexis Academic. The Company Dossier tool offers public and private company information, as available, for companies worldwide. Particularly helpful for hierarchical parent/subsidiary relationships and some executive email addresses, as available. [Global coverage]

Nexis Uni [homepage] >> Menu [top left corner] >> Company Dossier
Tip: Search on either the ticker symbol (for public companies) or the company's formal name.

Uniworld This link opens in a new window
Global company directory in which every company within the database has at least one foreign subsidiary. Find both U.S. firms operating in foreign countries, and foreign firms operating in the U.S. Searchable on criteria including: industry, employee count, and revenue. [Global coverage]

Public company's disclose (some, not all!) financial information in SEC filings and annual reports.

SEC Filings are the more detailed, legal documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Annual Reports are the glossy, magazine-like documents intended for shareholders.

S&P Capital IQ This link opens in a new window
Company intelligence database, including granular financial and capital structure information on companies worldwide. Company profiles contain data and graphs for historic stock prices, searchable SEC filings, mergers and acquisitions activities, and venture capital/private equity data. Also features biographic and professional connection information for business leaders. [Global coverage]
PitchBook This link opens in a new window
Data and research covering the private investment market, including venture capital, private equity, and M&A transactions. Information on companies, deals, investors, and funds. Use PitchBook to establish benchmarks, identify and analyze competitors, and search investor details. [Global coverage]
The vendor of this resource may monitor, collect, store, and analyze Subscriber’s usage of the Services (“Subscriber’s Usage Data”) on both a Subscriber and individual User basis for the limited purposes of providing or improving the services.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Public company financials and SEC documents, going back 15 years. Income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements can be downloaded directly into MS Excel. [Global coverage]

EDGAR
Search EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system) by company name, ticker symbol, or CIK to find company SEC filings. Also offers full-text searching of filings from 2000 to present.

Public companies in the U.S. disclose (some, not all!) information about their finances and operations in the form of SEC filings. The 10-K/Q have the most detail about a company's finances; you won't find a more specific breakdown elsewhere.

10-K: The annual report submitted to the SEC for a U.S. publicly traded company. Here's how you read it.
10-Q: The quarterly report submitted to the SEC for a U.S. publicly traded company.
20-F: The equivalent of a 10-K for a foreign company trading on a US exchange.
8-K: A form submitted when a materially important event happens at a company, so shareholders know about it.
DEF 14A: The proxy statement, i.e., an annual definitive form submitted to shareholders before a meeting, with information about executives, board members, and issues on which shareholders can vote.

Company Databases

These databases specialize in tracking small, private, startup companies.

PitchBook This link opens in a new window
Especially useful for finding private, startup, and up-and-coming companies in emerging industries. Data and research covering the private investment market, including venture capital, private equity, and M&A transactions. Information on companies, deals, investors, and funds. [Global coverage]
The vendor of this resource may monitor, collect, store, and analyze Subscriber’s usage of the Services (“Subscriber’s Usage Data”) on both a Subscriber and individual User basis for the limited purposes of providing or improving the services.
CB Insights This link opens in a new window
Global data and information about the financing activities of startup companies and investors, including venture capital firms, angel investors, as well as M&A and IPO activity. Specializing in emerging industries, the database also offers data-driven research reports, performance metrics related to company health, and data visualization and presentation tools. [Global coverage]
Users must create an account with their UCI email address. Download limits apply.

News Databases

News is often one of the only sources of information on private companies.

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Content includes scholarly business journals (including open access journals), trade publications, news, conference proceedings, industry reports, country reports, company reports, and more. [Global coverage]

Search first only by company name, and add more search terms as needed.
For ambiguous names (e.g., Apple) use: Select a Field (dropdown) > CO Company Entity.

Factiva This link opens in a new window
Global full-text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich websites. [Global coverage]
Maximum 12 users at a time.
Access World News This link opens in a new window
Provides information and perspectives from numerous national and international news sources, offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper. [Global coverage]

Learn this Search: Company Search

Press Releases

The "Press Release" page on a private company's website, discoverable through Google, is also a critically important resource for private company news.

GuideStar This link opens in a new window
Database for nonprofit company intelligence, featuring current financial data, IRS forms, and visualizations of financial trends for nonprofits. Includes a directory to search for nonprofits by size, cause, and location, plus a directory to search for people in leadership roles at nonprofits. [U.S. only coverage]

National Center for Charitable Statistics
The national repository of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. NCCS builds compatible national, state, and regional databases and develops uniform standards for reporting on the activities of charitable organizations.
IRS: Tax Exempt Organization Search
Find information about a tax-exempt organization’s federal tax status and filings.
The Nonprofit Network
From the Center for Public Integrity. Nonprofits must report money they give to other nonprofits on the public portion of their tax returns. This grant-funded resource mined 850,000+ tax forms filed electronically since 2010 from 250,000+ givers.
International Organizations Search
From the Union of International Associations (UIA). Detailed information on global civil society bodies and networks (organization contact details, origins, relations, members, bibliography, biographies, events, statistics, etc.).

Unavailable company information

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Imagine that you are an executive at a private company. What information (financial or otherwise) would you share, if it meant your competitors may use it for their own benefit?

Companies do not voluntarily share info about themselves, unless:

the SEC requires it by law, or
they believe disclosure gives them a competitive advantage.