Research Guides: Career Resources: Researching Companies

Company Research

What should you research?
Leadership	Current News
Mission and Values	Products and Product Innovation
Financial Strengths	Market Share
Corporate Image	SWOT Analyses

Company Research Databases

The resources below are recommended resources for researching companies.

For more databases, see the Business Database List for more resources or use the database search box at the bottom of the page.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Provides current and historical financial data, links to extensive lists of SEC filings and several years of annual reports for U.S. and non-U.S. companies. Special strengths of this database include delineations of debt and equity structure and hard to find annual reports for international companies.
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
PrivCo is the premiere source for private company information and venture funding.
Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) This link opens in a new window
A directory database of U.S. businesses. Searches include company name, business size, corporate linkages, SIC / NAICS, and geographic information.
Alternate titles: Reference USA
Published by: Infogroup
Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
This database includes company reports from Datamonitor. To access them, click the Company Profiles link in the right-hand column. About a third of the reports contain a SWOT analysis.

Tip: A company's website and social media accounts have useful information. Review the "about us" and press release sections. For a public company, look at their investor relations page.

Current News & Activity

Demonstrate your awareness of the company's recent activity and new initiatives by reviewing current news.

Factiva This link opens in a new window
Go to the News Pages tab to find the latest weeks' issues from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Barron's, Forbes and other major sources. Factiva's layout makes it easy to browse articles from the front page or from sections deeper in the publication. Search for articles about your company.
The Business Journals This link opens in a new window
Provides access to all 44 Business Journals across the American City Business Journals network. This includes full access to the Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio Business Journals in addition to 40 other Business Journals. Includes local Business News across 18 different industries locally and nationally, access to 40 Weekly Editions, 40 Books of Lists, and Local & National Search Archives.
Published by: American City Business Journals, Inc.
Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Search for articles on your company or its industry. Use the Filter box to focus on trade publications and news sources.

Career Resources

Company Research

What should you research?

Company Research Databases

Current News & Activity

Database Search