About Company Profiles
Company profiles offer selective information about companies. Generally, profiles cover publicly traded companies and provide the following information:
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They are very useful if you want a quick overview of a company and if you want to understand its larger context.
Histories
You can research company histories in articles and books. If your company is publicly traded you can also look at its historical annual reports. To find books in the library catalogue, search for the company's name as a subject:
Sources for Company Histories
International Directory of Company Histories by Call Number: HD2721 .I57 Koerner LibraryISBN: 9781558626157This multi-volume series provides detailed histories of more than 8,500 of the most influential companies worldwide.
Legal Issues/Patents
Legal Issues
Legal research can give you insight into a company's legal situation, as well as the legal environment of a particular industry.
- Supreme Court of Canada. Cases.Index to judgments is searchable since 1993. Useful for researching corporate legal disputes
- UBC Law LibraryIf you require more in-depth assistance with researching a company's legal situation, please contact the Law Library at Allard Hall.
Patents
Patent and trademark issues can be important in certain industries. Patents are also a source of competitive information about a company's activites and products.
- Patents Research GuideThe Science & Engineering Library at UBC maintains an extensive guide to researching patents.
Executives
- DirectoriesLinks to directories and company profiles which often contain listings of key personnel, like executives, directors, or board members.
- Mergent OnlineUS & international public company data, which includes executive listings.
Sources for Company Profiles
- Bloomberg This link opens in a new windowInvestment analysis database. Use to find stock prices, ratios, betas, business news, freight rates, stock exchange members, etc. Available on specific machines in the Canaccord Learning Commons, Wayne Deans Investment Analysis Centre (current Sauder students and faculty and staff only) and UBCO Library.
- Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new windowProvide company reports for 10,000 of the world's largest public companies, as well as a SWOT analyses for selected public companies.
- Business Market Research Collection This link opens in a new windowBMRC includes company, industry and geopolitical macroeconomic research which is useful for business and marketing plans. It also contains the Hoover Company Records for in depth company research.
- Datastream This link opens in a new windowData on international companies, stock indices, economies, commodities and interest and exchange rates. Includes up to 5 years of company financial data, including balance sheet, cash flow statement and profit and loss report. Accessible via standalone machines in the Canaccord Learning Commons and the Wayne Deans Investment Analysis Centre.
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowFactiva provides access to a deep archive of news and business information, allowing users to conduct in-depth research on companies, industries, regional affairs.
- Mergent Online This link opens in a new windowUS & international public company data, with enhanced features that allow you to compare companies and export data into software applications such as Excel. Annual reports. Analyst reports.
- Passport GMID This link opens in a new windowInternational statistical and market research reports for over 200 countries, covering consumer products and services, demographic and lifestyle reports and economic data.
- Standard & Poor's Capital IQ This link opens in a new windowComprehensive database of global public and private companies, banks, investment firms and M&A transactions.
- WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services) This link opens in a new windowWRDS is a Web platform hosting data from Standard & Poor's Compustat, CRSP, CSMAR, Execucomp, Global Insight, I/B/E/S,Thomson Reuters Mutual Fund (s12) Holdings, and Institutional (13f) Holdings and more.