Guide to Research : Privately Held Companies

Privately held companies are not required to file financial data with the Security Exchange Commission, nor do they sell stock to the public. Unless they willingly reveal annual reports or information, or are the subjects of news articles, research on private companies will be difficult and time-consuming. For your assignment, consider choosing a public company instead.

 
A Strategy
 
1) Explore the company's web site or ask the company for information.

2) View a print or electronic business directory, or use the company search tool in the Lexis-Nexis database for basic information. If you do not have access to the print references below, try a local public or academic library.
 
3) Often, the only way to locate additional facts about privately held companies is to search through news wire or newspaper articles, or articles in business journals.   Search by the name of your company.  Add the product or location for better relevancy if the company name is too common or the results are too broad.
 
4) Target news and business sources of the geographic region where the company is based or where its headquarters are located.  For local businesses, refer to the Regional Business guide as well.
 
5) Research the parent company that owns it, if applicable. Search through articles or annual reports that pertain to the parent. 

6) If you are seriously interested in pursuing unpublished information sources, a potentially time-consuming activity, consult strategies and resources by WashingtonResearchers. Do an Alphabetical Author search on Washington Researchers Publishing in the JHU catalog for some other business intelligence publications, or consult the business information guides in the Reference Office to identify resources. 
 
7) Ask the Librarian for Business or the JHU Center librarians for assistance.
 

Directories and Brief Information Resources:

(click on the "i" icon for more information about the databases)

Hoovers Academic  (All US JHU)

Standard and Poors NetAdvantage  (All US JHU)

LexisNexis Academic  (All US JHU)

Dun & Bradstreet  (All JHU (incl. International))

ReferenceUSA : an online phonebook  (All JHU (incl. International))

Directory of Corporate Affiliations  (All US JHU)

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations (also in Netadvantage database)
   GENERAL REFERENCE HG4057.A1S8
 
Ward's Business Directory
   GEN REF HG4057.A1W35 (also see rankings vols.)
 
Dun's Million Dollar Directory (print version of Dun's database)
   GEN REF HC102.D8
 
Directory of Corporate Affiliations
   GEN REF HG4057.A217
 
Baltimore Business Journal's Book of Business Lists
   RESEARCH CONSULTATION OFFICE HC108.B2B66 annual updates, local rankings, has section that ranks local private companies
 
 Article and News Indexes:

(These licensed databases are available to JHU faculty, staff and students only. Full-text articles are included from selected publications.)

LexisNexis Academic  (All US JHU)

Choose Guided to search the sources for a geographic region or the backfiles beyond two years.

ABI/INFORM Global  (All JHU (incl. International))

Business source premier   (All US JHU)

Regional Business News  (All US JHU)

Wilson business full-text (also part of OmniFile Full Text Mega)  (All US JHU)

FirstSearch: 
(can search up to three databases simultaneously) 

Business dateline  (All JHU (incl. International))

Business and industry  (All JHU (incl. International))

Newspaper Abstracts  (All JHU (incl. International))

Periodical abstracts   (All JHU (incl. International))

Web Sites (some free information):

Bizjournals
(online business journals from specific cities and regions)  

Bizweb Business Guide
(information on over 46,000 companies, arranged by line of business)

Altavista and Google 
(powerful web search engines: try the company name as a search term)
 
Yahoo Business and Economy

Washington Researchers