Business & Economics Journalism: Company & Industry Research
Company Research
For more resources, see the Libraries' Company Information guide.
See the NASS Corporate Registration Lookup tool from the National Association of Secretaries of State to find state business registration pages and corporate name databases for all U.S. states. The information available varies state to state—some are quite limited. Find corporations registered in New York through the NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database.
- Bloomberg TerminalProvides current and historical financial quotes, business newswires, and descriptive information on companies worldwide. There is one Terminal in Pulitzer Hall. See the Bloomberg Terminal tab for more information.
- Capital IQ . This link opens in a new window
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Detailed information on investment banking, private equity, corporations, investment management, professional services, and brokerage. Available on on-campus workstations and remotely to CBS only. For questions, contact business@library.columbia.edu. - Data Axle reference solutions This link opens in a new window
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Directory listings for millions of U.S. and Canadian businesses, health care, and residential listings. Choose the "U.S. Businesses" option to search by company name, or use the advanced search to locate businesses by geography or other characteristics. Information is compiled from yellow page and white page directories, postal service data, company SEC filings, direct phone calls, and more. - LSEG workspace This link opens in a new window
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LSEG Workspace provides access to information on global public and private companies including financials and filings, news and corporate events, earnings estimates, price quotes, M&A transactions, ESG ratings, and more. Must register for an account. Formerly known as Refinitiv and ThomsonONE. - Mergent online. This link opens in a new windowInternational and U.S. company data covering 30,000+ public companies and their SEC filings. Current and historical annual reports. Expanded, in-depth, and detailed descriptions of public companies as they appear in the Mergent Manuals (fka Moody's Manuals).
- Mergent archives. This link opens in a new windowMergent Archives is an online database providing access to an indexed collection of historical corporate and industry related documents, including digitized Moody's manuals, Ford Equity Research Reports, and annual and industry reports. Includes SEC filings from 1969-1995.
- Nexis Uni. This link opens in a new window
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An interdisciplinary, full-text database of over 18,000 sources including newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, company reports and SEC filings, case law, government documents, transcripts of broadcasts, and selected reference works. - Orbis / Bureau van Dijk. This link opens in a new window
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Information and data on over 400 million private and public companies across the globe.
- Securities and Exchange CommissionThe SEC oversees securities exchanges, securities brokers and dealers, investment advisors, and mutual funds in an effort to promote fair dealing, the disclosure of important market information, and to prevent fraud. Click Search Filings to search EDGAR for public company filings.
Resources on Private Companies
Private companies are difficult to research. Since they are not required to file with the SEC, most often there is limited publicly available information. For first steps, check a company's corporate registration (see the NASS Corporate Registration Lookup above), look at the company website, and do a news clip search for the company/any executive names. See the Library of Congress' guide, Doing Company Research: U.S. Private Companies, for more helpful suggestions. Some of the databases linked above may have private company information, including Data Axle Reference Solutions, Mergent Online (select "D&B Private Company Database"), Mergent Archives, Nexis Uni, and Orbis / Bureau van Dijk.
Industry Research
For more resources, see the Libraries' Industry Research guide.
- IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
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IBISWorld provides industry research reports for all of the 723 industries in the United States as categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Reports contain trends, statistics and analysis on market size, market share of competitors, and industry growth rates, along with leading companies, products and markets, industry outlook, competitive landscape, industry life cycle, operating conditions, and key statistics. - Passport This link opens in a new window
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Euromonitor Passport is a multi-country database of industry data on market and category sizes, market shares, distribution patterns, sales forecasts, and other measurements. Also includes country reports, with in-depth analysis on both developed and emerging national markets, and company profiles. - Standard & Poor's netAdvantage . This link opens in a new window
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Company information, including market snapshot, company quote, equity indexes page, the Outlook's market insight, S&P stock stock report, economic calendar, economic insight, industry in focus, and Stovall's sector watch. Also includes mutual funds, S&P industry surveys for the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. - Statista . This link opens in a new windowProvides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources in 170 industries.
Finding Industry Codes
- NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)The standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments by industry.
- SIC (Standard Industrial Classification)Lists the SIC Codes that appear in a company's SEC filings to indicate its type of business (industry).
Resources on Nonprofits
For more information, see the Libraries' Nonprofit Organizations guide.
- Charity NavigatorNonprofit assessment/evaluation site with financial information on nonprofits, including revenue and expenses, along with additional resources.
- Foundation directory . This link opens in a new window
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Provides descriptions of grant makers (including private grant-making foundations, community foundations, and more). Records include grant-maker financials from IRS 990 forms.
- GuidestarFinancial directory of nonprofit organizations, including education, healthcare, special interest groups, and religious institutions. Columbia does not have a premium account; register (for free) for additional access.
- ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerA tool from ProPublica to browse millions of annual returns (Form 990s and similar) filed by tax-exempt organizations.