Commerce Research Library: Company &amp; Industry Research: Vetting

Getting Started with Vetting

Vetting often involves:

Checking whether a company is a legitimate enterprise
Finding any negative stories about a company from news sources
Checking public records for any bankruptcy or criminal proceedings against a company
Determining whether there are any lawsuits pending against a business
Investigating whether there are any politically exposed persons within a firm

Depending on your company (private/public, big/small, foreign/domestic) you will have numerous results to sort through or nothing at all. For tips on how to limit or expand your search results check out our training videos.

Best Bets Vetting Databases

D&B Hoovers
Hoover's is easy to use and one of the best DOC resources to use when performing most types of company research. Hoovers covers both domestic and foreign companies and public as well as private firms. It is the best tool for building a list of companies using multiple filters including industries and geography. D&B Hoovers is also a good place to look if you are primarily interested in a company’s financial information or other basic facts about the company.
D&B Investigate
D&B Investigate provides access to more companies than D&B Hoovers including those out of business. Investigate has expanded data in the areas of, corporate linkage, beneficial ownership, current and former contacts, maritime shipping data, and government contracting details.
Nexis Diligence+
This tool is particularly useful for doing negative news searches and searches for legal issues since the LexisNexis database is a leading source for news and legal research. Nexis Diligence provides access to public records and can be used to monitor a company’s credit rating through its access to Experian. Diligence can be used to vet individuals as well as companies.

Additional Vetting Resources

Bloomberg Terminal
Information and data in the Bloomberg database are grouped by function. Most company related information is grouped under the “equity” function. Bloomberg also has robust company news.
EBSCOhost Databases
EBSCO includes a company directory that covers over a million companies, both public and private. Its coverage, however, is far less comprehensive than D&B Hoovers, LexisNexis Dossier or Bloomberg. Instead it focuses on the largest companies and even for these provides much less information and data than the other business directories. Company Profiles provide MarketLine/Medtrack Reports which cover company overview, SWOT analyses, key facts, top competitors, company products and services, subsidiaries, etc.
Statista
Aggregates third-party data on the largest stock-listed and private companies worldwide with additional industry-specific data. The company profile page shows a company’s revenue, employee figures, other financial key performance indicators, liquidity metrics, as well as key stock performance data from the most recent years.
Uniworld Online
An excellent directory resource for locating the subsidiaries of parent companies and visa-versa, as well as the branch offices of corporate headquarters. You’ll find contact information for headquarters, subsidiaries, and branches of multinational firms with offices in another country.