Company Directories

 
GENERAL DIRECTORIES 

Hoover's Online (online database)

Hoover's Online contains a wide variety of business information about public, private and non-US companies.  It includes extensive company profiles, information about competitors and names of key people with accompanying biographies.  Also available is company and industry news, IPO information, research reports and annual reports.  Company searches can be targeted using 18 parameters such as industry, geographic location, financial information, and company size. 

Reference USA (online database)

A searchable database of over 14 million US businesses, providing information such as executives, sales volume, employee size, and more. 

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (online database)

S&P's NetAdvantage includes industry surveys, stock and bond reports, company profiles and articles.  It also provides access to the Standard & Poor's Mutual Fund Reports, Stock Reports, and Industry Reports.  Remote access (as opposed to accessing on a library computer) does not provide access to the Industry Reports due to a contractual agreement with S&P.

General Business File ASAP (online database)
The Company ProFiles component of this database provides information on more than 200,000 companies with full-text listings from Ward's Business Directory and Whiteside Major Companies of the World.  To access the directory, first click on the "Advanced Search" option on the left-hand column, and then select "Company ProFiles" at the bottom of the resulting page.

The Corporate Directory of US Public Companies
Business Reference 338.74 Corporate
A directory of over 9,000 publicly held US corporations and foreign companies offering American Depository Receipts.

D&B Million Dollar Directory
Business Reference 658 D&B
Composed of the Million Dollar Directory (featuring 160,000 companies) and a Top 50,000 Companies directory (drawing leading companies out of the 160,000 listed) the Dun & Bradstreet publications are considered by many to be the gold standard among directories.

Hoover's Handbooks - These company directories are an excellent place to start your research for company information.  In addition to the typical directory data, Hoover's Handbooks include short company histories and "A List-Lover's Compendium" with a variety of rankings of the listed companies.  

• American Business - Business Reference 338.74 Hoover's
• Private Companies - Business Reference 338.74 Hoover's
• Emerging Companies - Business Reference 338.74 Hoover's
• World Business - Business Reference 338.74025 Hoover's

LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations
Business Reference 658.15 LexisNexis
In addition to acting as a directory, the LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations series is a resource for tracking parent companies and their affiliates.  Public, private, and international companies are covered; included is an index to find companies by geographic region, executives by responsibility, SIC, and NAICS codes.

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives
Business Reference 338.7 Standard
One of the foremost company directories, the S&P Register is a two volume directory; the first volume contains an alphabetical compilation of over 75,000 corporations and the second volume features biographical information for over 70,000 Directors and Executives.



LOCAL DIRECTORIES



D&B Regional Business Directory - For local business information, the D&B regional directories offer information searchable by geographic and SIC designations.  Also included are rankings by employee and sales figures.

• New England Area - Business Reference 338.74 D&B
• Boston Area - Business Reference 338.77 D&B

Massachusetts Business Directory
Business Reference 338.744 Massachusetts
Listing 329,000 local businesses, this directory indexes businesses by city, Yellow Pages category, SIC designation, and lists major employers by city.

Harris New England Manufacturers Directory
Business Reference 338.767025 Harris
Indexes over 30,000 New England-based manufacturers, indexed by geographic location, SIC code, and product category.

Massachusetts Manufacturers Register
Business Reference 338.767025 Massachusetts
Profiling over 10,000 Massachusetts manufacturers, indexed by geography and SIC code.  Also included is a parent company index.

Massachusetts Software & Internet Industry
http://www.masoftware.org/the_guide/search_guide.cfm
Provided by the Massachusetts Software & Internet Council, this free online database gives access to the profiles of over 2,500 Massachusetts-based software and Internet companies.

Company Histories

 
International Directory of Company Histories
Business Reference 338.7409 International
This multi-volume set covers over 5,700 leading companies in 49 volumes and provides a comprehensive overview of the company's historical development.  Includes an index to all companies covered in the series, as well as indexes by industry and geographic location.

Hoover's Handbooks
See description given under Company Directories. 

 Company Financials

Due to requirement by law, publicly-traded companies file lengthy financial reports with the SEC.  In addition to these filings, companies make annual statements to their shareholders.  From these statements, there is a wealth of financial reports for these companies online.  In the reports you can find a company's balance sheets, income statements, and other notable financial information. 

For international and private companies, limited financial information (such as annual sales figures) may be available in the company directories listed above.

10-K & 8-K Reports
SEC EDGAR Database
Companies traded publicly on the US stock exchanges are required by law to submit financial statements to the SEC.  These statements are made on an annual and quarterly basis and are referred to respectively as 10-K and 8-K reports.  The SEC has an online database for these reports, called EDGAR, which is freely accessible.

Annual Reports
Because of the cost of printing and mailing annual reports to their shareholders, the vast majority of public companies have made their annual reports available on their websites.  Annual reports are typically found under the company's page referring to investors.

 Company News

 
General Business File ASAP (online database)
In addition to investment reports and company directories, this database primarily offers access to full text journals, newswire releases, three national newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal), local area business titles, and trade journals.  A Google-like Keyword Search is the default but for more refined results use the "Advanced Search" option on the left-hand column. 

 Other Company Information

D&B Business Rankings
Business Reference 338.74 Dun's
Ranks companies within a variety of categories; including size, state, and industry category.

Brands and Their Companies
Business Reference 658.82 Brands
If you have a brand and wonder what company owns and produces it, there's no better place to find it than in this publication.  The first volume provides an alphabetical listing of brands and the second volume gives contact information for those companies.