This document provides an overview of various resources for researching company information, including: - Websites like a company's own site, Wikipedia, archives like the Wayback Machine, and domain lookup tools to find basic details. - Filings with government agencies like the Secretary of State for corporate records and the SEC for public company financial reports and exhibits. - Databases containing company profiles, financials, industry data and news from sources like Hoover's, Mergent, Bloomberg, and library databases. - Other sources of company-specific information include stock quotes, ratings, lawsuits, social media, and guides to researching nonprofits and government regulators.

1. Company
Information
Sue Altmeyer, Reference Librarian, University
of Akron Law Library
11/5/2015

2. Where to start?
•Google or other search engine
•Wikipedia (company structure)
•Company’sWebsite
•Whois Domain lookup

3. OldWebpages/SavingWeb Pages
•Wayback Machine - https://archive.org/
•Zotero to save web pages

5. Court cases, Bankruptcy
•Dockets, case opinion databases

6. Secretary of State Filings
• Secretary of State – Corporate charters, articles
of incorporation, fictious names database, UCC
filings
• The National Association of Secretaries of State Conta
• Ohio Secretary of State
• Find Statutory Agent

7. What businesses must file with Ohio Sec’y of
State?
•Corporations, LLCs and LLPs formed in Ohio
•Domestic general partners and sole proprietorships
ONLY IF transacting business in a name other than their
own personal name.
•Foreign companies if transacting business in Ohio under
a name other than their own personal name. Some
foreign companies neglect to file.

8. Determine State of Incorporation
•Company website,Wikipedia
•Databases such as Mergent, Bloomberg Law
•Many incorporated in Delaware

9. Securities and Exchange Commission Filings

10. Which Companies Must File with the SEC?
•Public companies = listed on a stock exchange or traded
in an over-the-counter market. A company that sells
stock to the general public
•Private companies if the company has publicly traded
bonds or exempt stock issuances.

11. What is filed
•10-Ks – annual reports (financial statements,
lawsuits, directors & officers, risks, etc.)
•Investor prospectus
•Proxy statements
•Handy list fromThomson Reuters

12. SEC EDGAR
•documents attached to 10-K: management contracts,
executive compensation plans, articles of incorporation,
by-laws, material contracts, voting trust agreements
See Item 601, Regulation S-K.
•http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

13. SEC Edgar FullText Search Features
•Fields for company name, SIC code, date, form type (but
not exhibit type)
•Natural language or Boolean
•Phrase (“”), AND, OR, NOT, truncation (*,
communicat* ), proximity operator (general NEAR1
motors )
•Past 4 years

14. More sophisticated SEC Filing databases
•Lexis andWestlaw
•Mergentonline – Available via Cleveland Public
•Hoovers, Mergent Intellect – Akron/
Summit County Library (but can not search across text of
all SEC filings)
•Bloomberg Law Edgar Search
•SECInfo.com

15. Free Company Databases
•Public companies only Reuters.com , Morningstar.com
•Hoover's Online
•Forbes – America’s Largest Private Companies
•ThomasNet
•Zoominfo.com
•www.bizjournals.com – top ten private companies by
region

16. Library Databases
• Check local public library for databases
• CPL Databases:
http://guides.law.csuohio.edu/c.php?g=190555&p=1258
• Akron-Summit County Library
• Bloomberg Law

17. Akron-Summit County Library
•Hoover’s Online – Company profiles (officers, family tree,
financial info), SEC filings (under Financials), industry
info, Includes Private Companies
•Mergent Intellect – Company profiles – include Private
Companies (family tree, financials, number of
employees, news, tweets, executive bios,) industry info
•

18. Dun & Bradstreet
•Most popular for-fee database - Dun & Bradstreet

19. Stock Quotes
•NASDAQ/NYSE
•Yahoo Finance – historical and current
•Google Finance
•Wolfram Alpha

20. Akron-Summit County Library
•Morningstar Investment Research – Stock data and
financials (public companies only)
•Weiss Financial Ratings (library card login)

21. Ratings
•Moody’s
•Standard & Poors Rating Services

22. News
•Google
•CNN Money, Yahoo Finance
•MarketWatch.com
•BizJournals
•Newspaper databases via the public library

23. Akron-Summit County Library
•First Research – Industry Profiles
•Business Source Premier – Articles , news, industry
profiles
•Regional Business News

24. Research Guides
•Cleveland Law Library Guide to Business
Information lots more links
•Corporations and Businesses – Finding Information
About Them.

25. Nonprofits and charities
•Ohio Attorney General:
•National Center for Charitable Statistics
•Guidestar.org
•CharityNavigator.org

26. Social Media
•Social Media – Linkedin, Facebook,Twitter
•Twitter searches - http://topsy.com/
•Set Linkedin so that person can not see you looked at
their profile
•Linkedin CAN be search by company and keyword
•http://smashfuse.com/ - social media search engine

27. Government Agencies Regulating Companies
•See links in your materials