What the Corporate Research Project can help you find out about any company
Basic Corporate Information
§ Legal name, headquarters address, telephone number and website.
§ Company status: whether it is publicly traded or privately held and whether it is a subsidiary of another company. In the case of institutions such as hospitals, we can also determine whether it is non-profit.
§ Financial data. In the case of privately held companies this data may be limited and not reliable. In the case of publicly traded corporations, there is an abundance of such information, and it can generally be regarded as reliable. Non-profits also must divulge a great deal of financial data.
§ Main lines of business and brief corporate history.
§ Merger & acquisition history.
§ Location of main operating facilities and other real estate holdings.
§ Names and locations of subsidiaries.
§ Foreign facilities of U.S.-based companies; U.S. facilities of foreign firms.
§ The ranking of the company in lists such as the Fortune 500 and market share data.
§ Data on exports and imports.
§ The company's main trademarks and patents.
§ Names of the company's main outside lawyers, auditors, advertising agencies and pension fund managers.
Executives, Directors, Institutional Owners and Creditors
§ Names of Top officers, their professional history and their other affiliations. For publicly traded companies, information is available on the salary, bonus and other compensation of these executives, along with data on their holdings of company stock.
§ Names of the members of the board of directors, their professional history and other affiliations. For publicly traded companies, information is available on the compensation received by these directors, along with data on their holdings of company stock.
§ The ownership structure of the firm. In the case of publicly traded companies, this will include the names of any parties holding 5 percent or more of the shares and a listing of the holdings of institutional investors (money managers such as pension funds and insurance companies).
§ Which financial institutions have lent money to the company and which institutional investors hold corporate debt issues (bonds).
Reputation, Legal Problems, Regulatory Compliance
§ A summary of what has been written about the company in national and local media, in the business press and in specialized trade journals. For publicly traded companies, we can also provide a summary of what has been written about the corporation in reports prepared by Wall Street analysts.
§ Company involvement in federal or state litigation or bankruptcy proceedings as well as involvement by executives in such matters as well as in divorce or probate proceedings.
§ Tax liens or tax court proceedings involving the company or its top executives.
§ Federal campaign contributions by corporate political action committees and executives. Similar information is available at the state level.
§ Data from state and federal agencies that regulate the company's activities. If necessary, we can help you file a Freedom of Information Act request.
§ Company involvement in product recalls.
§ Environmental compliance record.
Labor Relations and Employee Conditions
§ Whether all or part of the company's workforce is unionized, what unions the firm negotiates with and what the company's labor relations record has been.
§ Worker safety and health record; in some states workers compensation records are available as well.
§ Corporate compliance with federal wage & hour regulations (overtime, minimum wage, and child labor rules, etc.).
§ Information about the company's employee benefit plans.
Government Contracts and Subsidies
§ Summary of public subsidies that the company has received.
§ A summary of any contracts the company has received from the federal government.
§ Whether the company has been barred from doing business with the federal government.
Lobbying, Campaign Contributions and Philanthropy
§ Which trade associations the company belongs to
§ Who lobbies for the company in Washington and at the state levels and who are their other main clients.
§ A description of the company's charitable activities and a list of which groups have received corporate contributions.