Gov. Agencies Regulating Companies
If you do
not know the company’s URL and have not been able to
guess it, there are many ways to find a public or private
company's domain name (URL). You can search domain
registries or U.S. or international business directory
web sites (that base their information on the
registries).
Search Network Solutions at http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois to locate a company’s URL
by typing in the company name. Besides learning its URL,
you will also obtain contact and registrant information,
with addresses and phone numbers.
Company directory sites compile background information (for public and private companies) and provide links to SEC filings, news articles, stock quotes, research reports and financials. Some of the company directory sites are free and others are either subscription based or pay-as-you-go (use your charge card on the Internet).
However, even the fee-based sites provide a great deal of free information. Hoovers at http://www.hoovers.com,has free business news (click on "news center"). If you scroll down to the bottom right of the page, you can link to the Dow Jones Publications Library for articles about private and public companies culled from 6,000 journals (fee).
For more detailed information such as analyst reports, subscribe to Hoovers for $99.00 per year. Hoovers also sponsors IPO Central at http://www.hoovers.com/ipo/0,1334,17,00.html.
CompanySleuth at http://www.companysleuth.com/newspaper.cfm compiles information about U.S. public companies, providing links to a general company overview and also links to very specific types of information about the company such as real time news, rumors, insider trading information, trademark and patents owned by the company and SEC filings. No Longer Available!
CorpTech at http://www.corptech.com/ profiles 50,000 high-tech companies, 80% of which
are private. Two highlights of this site are the ability to search by
executive name (to learn their position in the company) or search by product
name to find companies that manufacture your product. You can register
as a free member to access basic information and links to news about the
company, but you must pay for more detailed information. (If CorpTech
is inaccesible, note that it has been down "temporarily," for
some time, but promises to return.)
While some
of the above directories do provide information about
private companies, CorporateInformation at http://www.corporateinformation.com/ is a useful (and interesting)
site for private company information. Search by company
name using the entire name or just a partial name. If you
limit your search to companies located in a specific
state, you will be brought to a page listing
state-specific corporate information web sites to choose
from. This site purports to contain 20,000 company
profiles and links to a search engine of 300,000 public
and private company profiles found at other sites. My
search of E! Entertainment Television brought me to the Vault
at http://www.vault.com which not only provided a
company profile but a link to their unofficial company
message board where you can have more fun than…
