20 March 2001. Revised 17 April 2008. The National Futures Association (NFA) offers a database of regulatory actions, NFA arbitration awards, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reparations cases against individuals and firms. Search by NFA ID number, individual or firm name, or pool name. Data under regulatory actions includes the contributor (e.g., CBOT, NYFE), case number, action type, effective date, violation(s) and penalty/fine. 21 February 2002. Business 2.0 offers an extensive guide for finding sources of business and economic information. It focuses on professional sources and covers issues like management, electronic commerce, finance, industries, technology, and more. This Web guide also covers current issues like finding sources of information about Enron. 14 September 2001. Revised 11 March 2005. Affiliated with the University of Missouri, CORI promotes research on contracting and organization. It provides a free database containing more than 25,000 contracts. Many of the contracts come from EDGAR (Securities and Exchange Commission) filings. Search by keyword. You may limit a query by the type of document (employment agreement, merger) you seek. You must register with the site to access the database. 1 May 2001. Revised 11 March 2005. The Corporate Library is an independent investment research firm providing corporate governance data, analysis and risk assessment tools. It offers a database of S&P 500 companies that you may search for free. (Paid subscribers receive access to a larger database of U.S. and international companies.) Search by company name, ticker, CEO or other criteria to find the company name, CEO name, ticker symbol, industry and market capitalization. For a fee, you can also download company and board member profiles.
The site offers additional free databases. Find one containing chief executive officer employment contracts, which you can search by keyword. "Governance Policies" is a keyword-searchable database of governance policies.
30 August 2000. CPADirectory.com, Inc. purports to offer "the first comprehensive national online directory of licensed accountants on the internet." The database contains the names and addresses of 450,000 certified public accountants in the United States. From the home page, search by name and state (city is optional). For advanced search features -- e.g., create a list of accountants or accounting firms that serve lawyers in Pennsylvania, click on the Advanced Search button on the home page. Revised 4 February 2002. Find business credit reports. Search by company name and location, DUNS number, executive name or telephone number. 27 February 2002. The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) offers this list of executive compensation information for many public companies. The data appears to be based on year 2000 earnings. The site also refers visitors to a company's proxy statement for more information, and tells how to obtain the document. 10 March 2005. Business and industry research service Factiva provides a commercial resource for finding information about companies, industries and executives. Covering approximately 1 million public and private companies worldwide, it brings together in one place information from Dun & Bradstreet, Bureau van Dijk, Reuters and other business information sources. Designed especially for marketing and sales professionals, it provides company snapshots -- contact, ownership, industry, location, size, financials, competitors -- and the ability to monitor the activity of up to 25 companies or topics. 11 February 2002. This annual ranking, extending back to 1997, lists the 800 chief executives that head America's biggest companies. Sales, profits, assets and market value figure into the ranking. 11 February 2002. After registering with the site, users may search for, and monitor, information and news about public company executives. Search for executives by name or company stock symbol. The site also offers a handy ticker symbol look-up tool. Some of the information provided includes the individual's title, compensation, and stock options, as well as news stories about the officer and the company. Searchers may opt to receive email updates. 6 February 2002. Find company and industry information, including brief business descriptions, executive biographies, competitors, news, and more. 24 October 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. National Law Journal publishes a list of major corporations and their in-house and outside counsel. 6 August 2007. While the title of this Web site is an obvious over-statement, the NNDB or Notable Names Database is a useful tool for discovering basic facts about well-known individuals or people who have been in the news. You may search by name or keyword.
Keyword searching might be useful in trying to identify an expert witness. I have used it successfully in certain fact-based research; for instance, to answer questions such as who wrote a certain book or who starred in a certain movie or television show.
There is a certain facetiousness to the Web site. (See, for instance, the bio on Bill Gates.) Also, source information isn't consistent. We recommend verifying what you find here with an authoritative source. 5 June 2002. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) offers this database of union annual financial reports. It contains PDF images of reports filed during 2000 and later. The site also offers an online order form for requesting copies of earlier (or current) reports.
The layout of the site is a bit confusing. Find the search criteria at the bottom of the page that loads after following this link: "View/Print Reports Online for the Year 2000 and After." Those wanting older reports should also follow this link. To order an older report, you must have the union's file number. Find it by performing a search using criteria you know. Following the "order" link will produce an error until you have the file number.
Once you locate the union, follow the date link to display the annual report. Annual reports may provide such information as the name of the union representative, mailing address, telephone, number of members, date of last annual election, dues, assets, liabilities, cash receipts, loans, officers and their compensation, charitable contributions and gifts, office expenses, and more. 2 May 2005. Compiled and maintained by the AFL-CIO, PayWatch.com strives to expose companies that reward CEOs with large pay packages. It provides case studies of excessive CEO pay for the following companies: Amgen, Coca-Cola, Dynegy, Sprint, Sempra Energy and Wal-Mart. The case studies dissect the compensation and link to the union fund-sponsored shareholder proposal at each company. PayWatch.com also gives visitors tools to pressure companies to reform excessively high CEO compensation. 19 November 2001. Revised 1 April 2005. Search a company name to find its stock transfer agents. Searching is free after submitting your name and email address. The information provided includes the stock transfer company's name, address and telephone number.
Other resources available at the site include contact information for state secretaries of state, escheatment offices, and securities regulators, as well as a financial glossary, a state-by-state chart summarizing fiduciary powers, and resources for finding information about stock certificates when the transfer agent is no longer in business.
For securities professionals, the site publishes transfer agent rules, regulatory information about escheatment and Rule 144 (disclosure rule), forms, security industry regulations, and other information.
14 August 2003. This Forbes special report examines the compensation of the 500 highest paid executives in the United States. It provides rankings by compensation, name, company, efficiency grade and more. It also charts compensation by industry and offers historical data back to 1997. 8 January 2000. This fee-based database, also accessible via Lexis, offers business descriptions, contact information, and manager bios for over 20,000 European companies. The Web site offers free samples and the ability to subscribe directly. 20 February 2002. Find three biographical directories -- Who's Who in Spain, Who's Who in Italy, and Who's Who in Russia. Search by executive, company, or industry sector to find biographical information or company or industry profiles. Profiles and biographical entries appear in English. 12 May 2006. The Wall Street Journal Online makes available a one-day index to stories about business people. The stories appear in the print edition, and not necessarily in the online edition. The index refreshes on a daily basis and there is no archive. 13 December 2004. Revised 1 April 2005. Ziggs is a specialty search engine that helps you find information about professionals. Search by last or first name, city/state, company or keyword to find Web pages containing biographies about business professionals. Currently, the database contains links to more than 2 million profiles from business people in 40,000 companies. 7 September 2007. ZoomInfo is a search engine for finding companies, people or jobs. It contains profiles on more than 36 million people and 3.8 million companies.
Initial results for company searches show the company name and location. Follow the name link to find a basic profile, which provides the following, if available: street address, phone, Web site, industry, revenues, number of employees and key people. However, be sure to verify this information. Our test queries found several errors.
Initial people search results show options, if they match what appears to be more than one person. Follow the name link to find more details, including employment history, education, professional membership and Web references. Again, take this information with a grain of salt and verify it.
Note: Registration and log-in may be required to display some information. Access to executive profiles requires a paid subscription.
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