Ongoing problems with corporate crime and misbehavior make it essential for progressive activists to

know how to gather information on the way business operates. These days, all of us also need to be
watchdogs against the excesses of corporate power.
This Guide is designed to help researchers and activists gather essential information on any type of
U.S.-based company, whether small or large, privately held or publicly traded. Given space
limitations, the Guide does not contain sources that relate to specific industries or geographic areas.
Also, aside from a few brief references to Canadian sources, there is no detailed discussion of
information sources outside the United States.
Given that most business research these days is done via computer, most of the sources listed are
found online. Wherever possible, the recommended resources are free sites on the web, but the Guide
also points out where certain valuable information can be found only on pay websites and
subscription services such as Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw. Keep in mind that it is easy to run up large
bills on some of these services, so you may want to get help from an experienced user. Also keep in
mind that not everything is available online. There are times when you still have to go to the library
or a government agency. This Guide tells you when that is necessary.
The resources listed here are all, in one way or another, part of the public record. If you want to know
about business espionage or private investigative techniques, you will have to look elsewhere. The
Guide, nonetheless, will introduce you to many lesser known public sources that contain information
that may feel as if it is secret.
The Guide is divided into three parts. The first covers leading sources of basic information on
companies of all kinds. The second part focuses on information sources relating to the key
relationships every company must have in order to function. The final part shows you how to gather
information about a companys social responsibility record. Together, these sections will help you
find all the basic information needed to support efforts to get companies to do the right thing. Happy
hunting!

I. GETTING STARTED: THE KEY SOURCES OF COMPANY INFORMATION
The biggest challenge in most corporate research projects is not a shortage of information, but rather
too much of it. The key to efficient research is figuring out how to sort through the barrage of data
and zero in on what is important. An essential part of this is knowing where to begin. This section
provides a list of the best starting points for getting a basic understanding of a company, including its
finances, its operations, its executives and its history.
A. SOURCES FOR BASIC CORPORATE PROFILES
Hoovers Online
Hoovers is one of the most useful places to begin when trying to get a basic picture of a company.
Its free website offers capsule descriptions of thousands of companies based in the United States and
abroad. Most of the firms are publicly traded, but it also covers larger privately held companies as
well as major non-profit institutions. The capsules include the following information:
name, address, phone number and website
ticker symbol and stock price chart
data on revenues, profits and number of employees
brief overview of history, operations and reputation
links to recent news stories and company press releases
names of top executives
top competitors
Hoovers also sells subscriptions that give users access to additional information, including more
extensive narrative profiles, more details on products and subsidiaries, and biographical information
about top executives and directors. Note: The longer Hoover company descriptions are available on
the subscription service Nexis.

Yahoo Finance
Yahoo operates one of the most popular of the multitude of investor information sites on the web.
You begin by entering the ticker symbol (which it can help you look up) and are then shown a screen
with the most recent stock price and a list of news headlines. You can think click on various links
within categories such as News & Info, Company (which includes a basic profile) and Financials.

Mergent Manuals
Several years ago Mergent Inc. took over the publication of Moodys Manuals, which in the pre-
Internet age were one of the prime sources for basic descriptive, historical and financial information
about publicly traded companies, including a useful summary of major acquisitions and a list of
subsidiaries. These hefty annual volumes are still used by researchers who dont like computers and
those who need an easy way to track a companys evolution. The books are published in various
series, including the following:
Mergent Industrial Manual (published since 1920)
Mergent OTC Industrial Manual (since 1970)
Mergent Bank and Finance Manual (since 1928)
Mergent Transportation Manual (since 1909)
Mergent Public Utility Manual (since 1914)
Mergent International Manual (since 1981)
The Mergent manuals, which are updated with weekly reports, can be found in most large libraries.
For a more detailed description of the volumes, see the Mergent website (click on Products and
Services). The information from the manuals is also available online from Mergent via a high-priced
subscription, which is available on some university library systems. Some Mergent material is
available on Dialog and Westlaw.

International Directory of Company Histories
For more than a decade, St. James Press has been publishing collections of narrative profiles of
thousands of major companies. Known as the International Directory of Company Histories, this
series now comprises more than 50 volumes. It can be found in larger reference libraries. While it is
not possible to access this reference work directly on line, the Gale Group draws from its content in a
web-based product called the Business & Company Resource Center (see below).

Business & Company Resource Center
The Business & Company Resource Center is an amalgamation of information from a variety of
printed and online reference works. This resource is produced by Gale Group and is marketed mainly
to larger public and academic libraries, which often provide remote as well as on-site access for
authorized users. The features include:
basic data (address, line of business, top officers, etc.)
company history and/or chronology
financial data
rankings
product names
links to news articles about the company
links to Wall Street analyst reports about the company
links to relevant trade associations

B. COMPANY WEBSITES
Much of the material on corporate websites amounts to little more than company propaganda, but
there is also a fair amount of useful information, especially on the sites of larger firms. Here are some
of the main items to look for
General description and company history. Most companies include at least a basic profile of
themselves (often under the heading About Us). Sometimes there will also be a history of the firm.
Annual Report. Company websites are the only place where you can download copies of the
firms glossy annual report, which contains information about operations, financial results, officers
and directors, etc. [For old reports, see the ProQuest Historical Annual Reportsdatabase, which is
available as part of the electronic resources of some university libraries.]
Press Releases. These documents contain a high quotient of hype, but they are useful as sources of
information that may never make it into the media. They serve as a primary source for official
company positions and claims. In a controversy over a companys failure to live up to a
commitment (such as the creation of new jobs at a plant that received a government subsidy), it is
quite effective to be able to quote from an old company press release in which the promise was
made.
Executive biographies. Many large companies post bios of upper level managers. These can often
provide useful information about executives who might be your adversaries.
Facility lists. Companies often put lists of their factories and other facilities on the website,
including their location. Larger retail chains include store locators. Such information can be quite
handy in planning campaign activities.

C. STATE CORPORATION FILINGS AND PROPERTY RECORDS
Every U.S. corporation whether publicly traded, privately held or non-profit must register at the
state level to receive a charter to do business. The agency that handles this process is usually the state
Secretary of States office, which will also provide public access to at least some of the information
that corporations must provide in their filings.
There are several ways to obtain this information. The best is to go to the Secretary of States office
directly, make a request and obtain hard-copy printouts of all the documents available on your target
company. Along with the articles of incorporation, the materials should at least contain the exact
name and mailing address of the company plus the name of its registered agent (a person or entity
that is served papers when the company is sued but may not otherwise be involved in operations). In
many states companies must also provide information such as the name (and sometimes home
address) of each officer and director and his/her ownership of the companys stock. These facts are
especially valuable when researching small, privately-held companies that may otherwise not be
required to disclose much information.
If you cannot go to the Secretary of States office in person, check if there is a telephone request
service. In addition, more and more states are putting their corporate filings on the Internet. For a
guide to which states have created free sites for this or other kinds of public records, see BRB
Publications, Search Systems Public Records or RecordsPedia.
If you dont know what state the company is located in, there are several ways of doing nationwide
searches. The website KnowX allows you to search records from most states for free; there is a
charge for viewing the details. If you have access to a subscription service such as Lexis-
Nexis or Westlaw, you can search nearly all states at once either by the name of the company or the
name of an officer or director (though the entries from some states do not include such names);
Delaware can also be searched through a separate service. On Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw you can also
search Fictitious Names (DBA) files for the same states.
Property Records
The real estate holdings of corporations, like those of individuals, are a matter of public record,
usually at the county level. You will want to check the records of the Tax Assessor to see what
properties are held in the companys name, how much property tax is supposed to be paid on those
properties and whether the payments have been made. You will also want to search at the office of
the Recorder of Deeds to get copies of documents such as deeds, mortgages and tax liens. Note that
the names of these offices will vary in different places. To find links to online data from such
sources, use services such as BRB Publications, Search Systems Public Records or RecordsPedia.
To do a search beyond a single county, use services such as KnowX, the Assets Library of Lexis-
Nexis or the Asset Locator on Westlaw. Note that these services can also search for ownership of
boats and aircraft; Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw have some motor vehicle information as well.

D. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION FILINGS
Since the federal government instituted an extensive system of securities oversight in the 1930s,
publicly traded companies have been required to file a variety of reports with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), which in turn releases most of these filings to the public. The reports,
which cover financial and some operational matters, are designed to assist investors, but they also
widely consulted by trade unionists and other progressive activists.
Gaining access to these reports became much easier in the mid-1990s, when the SEC initiated a
system called EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval) under which most of the
public filings are posted on the Internet. EDGAR documents are available from the SEC
website itself or from several commercial sites.
For online access to SEC documents that predate the EDGAR system, try the Company Library on
Lexis-Nexis or SEC-ONLINE on Westlaw, which have documents going back to around 1987. Older
filings can also be found on microfiche at the SEC public reading room in Washington, DC or at
larger reference libraries. The Access Disclosure file on Lexis-Nexis and the Company Index on
Westlaw have lists of all SEC filings back to the late 1960s.
There are dozens of different types of SEC filings. Here are descriptions of the key ones to check
when profiling a corporation:
10-K
The 10-K is an annual report that companies file with the SEC, but it is quite different from the
glossy annual report that firms use for public relations purposes. The 10-K may lack photographs and
fancy graphics, but it includes a wealth of information about the company. Along with a full set of
financial statements, the document includes:
a detailed description of the companys operations
a summary of the firms competitive and regulatory climate
a description of the companys facilities
basic data on the companys workforce, which often includes information on the extent to which
the workers are unionized and which unions represent them
an overview of the main legal proceedings in which the company is involved
an account of environmental issues relating to the companys operations
a list of the companys subsidiaries
Note: A company may be privately held in that it does not have shares that trade publicly, yet it still
is required to file a 10-K if it sells bonds or other debt securities to the public.
10-Q and 8-K
The 10-Q is a quarterly filing that updates the information in the 10-K. The 8-K is a filing made by
the company when an extraordinary event has taken place. This would include things such as a
change in top management, a takeover bid or merger plan, and the initiation of a major legal action
against the company.
Proxy Statement (Form DEF 14A)
Another disclosure goldmine is the proxy statement (or simply proxy), which the SEC designates as
Form DEF 14A. The primary function of the proxy is to notify shareholders when and where the
companys annual meeting will take place. It is called a proxy because the version sent to
shareholders includes a card that those who do not plan to attend the meeting can send in to give
management the right to vote their shares in the election of directors and any ballot measures.
Information about the annual meeting is also useful to trade unionists and other activists who may be
trying to influence corporate policy. The annual meeting may be the only opportunity for you to
address top management and the board of directors face to face. If you are engaged in an intensive
campaign, you may want to formulate a shareholder resolution and try to get it on the ballot for the
meeting. This is a complicated process that you should not undertake without consulting groups that
specialize in shareholder activism (see below). If you succeed, the text of your resolution would
appear in the proxy statement.
The value of the proxy statement as an information source goes beyond matters relating to the annual
meeting. Here are some of the other gems it contains:
Stock Ownership Data. The proxy will list any individual or institution that controls 5 percent
or more of the companys shares. It will also list the number of shares controlled by each director
and each member of top management. This will allow you to determine, for example, how much a
chief executive stands to gain personally by pursuing policies aimed at jacking up the stock price.
Executive Compensation. Everyone talks about corporate greed. The proxy statement will
show you exactly how greedy the top officers of the company arein terms of the exorbitant
compensation packages they have pressured the board to award them. The document states down
to the dollar how much the five highest paid executives receive in salary, bonus, incentive pay,
perks, etc. It also shows you the quantity of stock options those executives have received and how
much profit they have realized by exercising the options. A reminder: a stock option is the right to
purchase a certain number of a companys shares at a specified price. When the market price rises
well above the option price, the executive can make a killing by purchasing shares at what
amounts to a steep discount.
Director Compensation. Outside directors (i.e. those who are not members of management)
used to receive nominal payment for what is typically a not very demanding part-time job. These
days, large companies often reward their outside directors handsomely with cash and stock
options. The proxy discloses the details.
Director Biographies. One of the things that shareholders do at annual meetings is to elect or
re-elect directors (who usually run unopposed). The proxy statement is where the candidates are
listed and where their professional background is presented. These biographies include the names
of any other companies where the individual serves as a director. Situations in which two
companies share directors (also known as interlocks) can signify an important relationship
between the firms. It is also a key fact that can be used in corporate campaigns to put pressure on
parties other than the direct employer.
Procedures for Shareholder Resolutions. The proxy will contain information on the
deadline for the submission of a shareholder resolution for the following years annual meeting.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has a high-priced database called EthVestthat
contains comprehensive information on shareholder resolutions.
Prospectus and S-1 Registration Statement
These are documents issued in connection with an initial public offering (IPO) of stock or the
issuance of new stock by a company that is already public. The disclosure process begins with a
preliminary prospectus (known informally as a red herring). This contains:
a description of the securities to be registered
planned use of the proceeds from the sale of the securities
risk factors that need to be considered by potential investors
names of the parties selling shares to the public
company advisers and their financial interest in the deal
The S-1 Registration Statement contains a detailed account of the companys history, operations and
financial record. It is similar to a 10-K, but it contains more detail.
Forms 3 and 4
These filings are the means by which company insiders (officers and directors) report sales or
purchases of the firms stock. The SEC requires these reports so that investors are aware of personal
transactions that may reflect the insiders assessment of the companys prospects. Form 3 is an initial
filing and Form 4 reflects changes in the holding.
Canadian companies
Canada is one of the only other countries with a openly accessible corporate disclosure system
comparable to that of the United States. It has a program called SEDAR (System for Electronic Data
Analysis and Retrieval). The Canadian filings have different names from those in EDGAR (see the
website for a guide), but the content is similar.

E. D& B
D&B (formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet) is one of the leading credit-rating companies; i.e., it
collects information on how promptly firms pay their bills and sells this information to other
companies that want to determine how risky it is to extend credit to a commercial customer. In the
course of assembling this payment data, D&B also collects a great deal of descriptive information on
millions of U.S. and foreign companies, including ones that are privately held and ones that are tiny
in size. D&B is thus an invaluable source of information on companies that do not file with the SEC.
Keep in mind, however, that there is no legal penalty for lying to D&B (as there is with the SEC), so
the data in its databases cannot be regarded as authoritative. It is, however, often the only source of
descriptive information (beyond what is in state corporate filings) for small, private firms.
Many unions and other organizations subscribe to D&Bs services. If you do not have such access,
you can purchase individual reports on the Internet (using a credit card) at this site. Among the
various reports, the most useful for general corporate research is the Business Background Report. It
does not contain payment data, but it usually has the following:
line of business and scope of operations
estimate of annual revenues
number of employees
brief history of the company
names and brief biographies of officers and directors
names of subsidiaries or parent company
Note: D&B databases with some of this information (not including company history and biographies)
can be found on Lexis-Nexis in the Dun & Bradstreet Library. Access to D&B databases is also
possible through the Westlaw service. D&B also publishes print volumes such as the Million Dollar
Directory that can be found in business libraries.

F. MEDIA COVERAGE
Newspaper and magazine articles may be secondary sources, but they often contain company
information found nowhere else. This is especially so with specialized trade journals and newspapers
in cities where a company has its headquarters or a major facility.
Searching for news articles used to a cumbersome process of paging through hefty printed indexes
and then retrieving the actual texts from bound volumes or microfilm. Thanks to the creation of
digital archives, it is now possible to search for articles via your computer. Some publications have
set up websites with an archive of back issues. To locate the website of a print publication,
try NewsLink, which is arranged by subject and by geography. Look here for a directory of
newspaper archives.
For a more thorough search, use one of the databases that collect the full text of articles from many
publications. The best of these is Nexis, which brings together articles in some cases going back 20
years from several thousand newspapers, magazines, trade journals, wire services and press release
services. Nexis can be expensive, but it is possible to arrange for reasonably priced flat-rate
subscriptions for small organizations. It may also be possible to gain access through a public or
academic library.
The other leading source of full-text articles is Factiva (formerly Dow Jones Interactive), which is
somewhat more affordable than Nexis. It is the only source for the full online archive of the Wall
Street Journal. Also try NewsLibrary, which includes some newspapers not covered in Nexis or
Factiva.
If you are on a tight budget, you can find recent stories on free web services such as Google News.
Also keep in mind that many public and academic libraries provide free online access to commercial
databases to authorized users.

G. INTERNET CHAT ROOMS AND INTERNAL DOCUMENTS
One of the results of the spread of the internet is that it enables people around the country who share
specialized interests including the fact that they have investments in the same company to
communicate with one another. The web has numerous sites where investors (and sometimes
company insiders) can share information (or rumors) with one another, or simply mouth off about the
company. These postings cannot be regarded as authoritative, but sometimes they contain valuable
leads that you can then research using more reliable sources.Yahoo Finance, for example, has a set of
message boards on individuals stocks that you reach by plugging in the stock symbol and then
clicking on Message Board.
The Wikileaks website has an archive of selected corporate as well as government internal
documents that have been made public.

II. EXPLORING A COMPANYS ESSENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Companies are like people: they need relationships to survive. These include, for example,
relationships with those who buy the firms products, those who invest in the company and those
who lend it money. When you are researching a company, it is essential to understand these
relationships. When you are involved in a corporate campaign against a company, chances are that
you will end up intervening in these relationships in some way, since this is often the most effective
way to get a corporations attention and persuade it to abandon socially irresponsible policies.
A. PARENT COMPANY/SUBSIDIARIES
If you are researching a large company, there is a good chance that it has subsidiaries or is itself a
subsidiary of a larger corporation. This is vital information for any campaign.
An indication of where a particular company fits into a corporate hierarchy may be obtained from
sources such as Hoovers or Dun & Bradstreet (see above for both); public companies must provide a
list of subsidiaries in their 10-K. The Croctail website contains a search engine for these lists.
Keep in mind that the fact that a company is publicly traded does not mean that it is an ultimate
parent company. It is not uncommon for large companies to make a public offering of stock in a
subsidiary while retaining a majority of the shares.
The most complete data on corporate family trees can be found in a publication called theDirectory
of Corporate Affiliations, which covers public and larger private companies. It is published in print
form by the Lexis-Nexis Group, which also makes the information available via an expensive
subscription service on the web. Dun & Bradstreet publishes a similar work calledAmericas
Corporate Families, which is available online as Who Owns Whom on the Dialogdatabase service.

B. OUTSIDE DIRECTORS
Outside directors i.e., those who are not are not members of management are supposed to serve as
watchdogs, protecting the interests of shareholders against transgressions by executives of the
company. As various corporate scandals have shown, outside directors often look the other way or
are oblivious to accounting and other forms of fraud.
Nevertheless, board members are ultimately responsible for the actions and policies of a company, so
it is perfectly legitimate to put pressure on them when a company is trying to bust a union or
otherwise act in a socially irresponsible manner.
As noted above, a publicly traded companys proxy statement is the best source of information about
directors, including their stock ownership, their compensation for serving on the board and their
other affiliations. Proxy statements are not always complete when it comes to listing other affiliations
(especially when they involve privately held companies or non-profits), so it is worth the effort to
check other sources such as the following:
The website of Forbes magazine has a feature called People Tracker that allows you to search for an
individuals corporate affiliations (as well as listings on the Forbes lists of rich people).
To find references to individuals in SEC filings, use commercial full-text search services such
asMorningstar Document Research (formerly called 10k Wizard), or, if you are willing to limit the
search to documents issued during the past four years, the website of the SEC itself.
The Dun & Bradstreet Library on Lexis-Nexis has a file called EXAFFL that allows you to search for
an individuals affiliations with public and private companies. Westlaw has a similar database called
Executive Affiliation.
Whos Who in America, available in print form in libraries or online via Dialog, Lexis-Nexis or
Westlaw, provides biographical information on thousands of prominent individuals. Keep in mind
that the information is supplied by the subject, so there may be omissions or
embellishments.Standard & Poors Register, also available in libraries or on Dialog, Lexis-Nexis
and Westlaw, provides affiliation information for executives and directors. The Social Register,
available in larger reference libraries, has information on socially prominent persons. One way of
tracking down articles on better known directors is to use the Wilson Biographical Index, which
can be found in most libraries.
If the director you are researching is a well-connected member of the power elite, also try plugging
his or her name into two other search engines. The first is LittleSis, a collaborative project that called
itself "an involuntary facebook of powerful Americans." Its entries track social networks involving
executives, directors, lobbyists and financiers. The other is Namebase, which contains an index of
references to people in hundreds of books, articles and reports about big business, corporate crime,
the intelligence agencies, the federal government, etc.
A subscription service called The Corporate Library has extensive data on the voting records and
other performance measures relating to directors at virtually all publicly traded companies.

C. INSTITUTIONAL SHAREHOLDERS
Most big publicly traded companies are no longer controlled by individuals or families; instead, the
largest portion of their stock is held by entities known as institutional shareholders. They include
pension funds, university endowments and various categories of investment managers. These
institutions wield enormous power in the stock market, so it is standard procedure to engage these
investors in corporate campaigns. Sometimes the institutions can be allies, especially Taft-Hartley
pension funds (those in which unions play a role in managing) or public employee pension funds
(which are often susceptible to political influence). Many of these funds, as well as giants such as
TIAA-CREF (the pension fund for many academics and employees of non-profits), may be
sympathetic to campaigns that raise some issue of social responsibility.
Dealing with institutional investors is a complicated process that you should not undertake without
consulting shareholder activism specialists at groups such as the following:
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
As You Sow
Social Investment Forum
Before engaging institutional investors, you need to know which ones have significant holdings in
your target company. You can get a free list of the top ten on several websites, includingYahoo
Finance (enter the stock symbol, hit enter, then click on Major Holders).
If you have access to Lexis-Nexis, you can get a longer list in the Vickers Securities file in the
Company library. However, to get the most complete data, you need to subscribe directly to services
provided by a commercial service such as Vickers Stock Research. These products include a
complete list of institutional holders plus an indication of whether the institution has voting authority
for all or some of the shares.

D. WALL STREET ANALYSTS AND THEIR REPORTS
Like outside directors, Wall Street analysts (who are employed by brokerage houses and investment
banks) are a category of corporate watchdog that has turned out to be toothless. Corporate scandals of
recent years have featured cases in which analysts promoted dubious stocks to pump up initial public
offerings handled by their employeror else to expand their employers investment banking
business.
The reputation of analysts may have been tarnished, but they remain important influences on the way
in which companies are regarded by the market. For this reason, corporate campaigners continue to
spend time communicating with analysts, making sure they aware of pertinent facts about the target
company.
It is thus useful to know how to find out which analysts follow a particular company. The standard
source for this information is a publication called Nelsons Directory of Investment Research,
which in 2009 ceased to be available in print form and is now available electronically via Lexis-
Nexis or via direct subscription from Nelson's.
In addition to knowing which analysts cover a company, it is useful to read what they have written
about your target company. At one time, brokerage houses used to give away analyst reports for free.
Today, if you are not a major customer, you have to purchase access to these documents through an
online service. The most extensive of these is Investext, which is available by direct subscription (as
part of the Thomson Research or via Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw (whose versions may not be quite as
comprehensive). Investext can be found on some university library systems.
Analyst reports are also available through at the Reuters website, where you can buy individual
reports using a credit card.

E. CREDITORS
Borrowing money is one of the ways in which companies obtain the funds needed to build new
facilities or buy other companies. Corporations may borrow from a single lender, from a group of
lenders that form a syndicate to provide a large loan, or by issuing bonds or other debt securities.
Corporate campaigns often focus on the role of major creditors, making an issue, for example, of the
fact that a bank is lending money to a union-busting employer. The bank then becomes a secondary
target of the campaign.
Publicly traded companies, which have to disclose the size of their debt, often (but not always) reveal
which banks it is borrowing from. In many cases this is disclosed only by including a copy of the
credit agreement in the exhibits to the companys 10-K filing. Dun & Bradstreet often includes the
name of a companys primary bank in its information products. There are also several specialized
newsletters (such as the Bank Loan Report, which is included in Nexis) that track bank lending to
large companies.
Bondholder information is harder to come by than institutional shareholder data. The Vickers
Securities file on Lexis-Nexis (see above) has a limited amount of data on bond holdings by various
types of institutions. The one group of institutional investors that have to disclose detailed bond
holdings are insurance companies. This information appears in the Annual Statements that carriers
have to file with state insurance departments. These can be obtained from the departments
themselves or from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
UCC Filings
Another source of information on creditors, especially for smaller companies, are Uniform
Commercial Code filings (UCCs). These are public lien documents that have to be filed when
property is used as collateral on a loan. The UCCs indicate the names of the secured party (the
lender) and the debtor (the borrower). UCC filings can be used when a company borrows from a
bank or when it purchases equipment on credit.
UCC documents can usually be obtained from the same state office that is responsible for corporation
filings (see above). They are also available on some official state websites or they can be purchased
through services such as KnowX. The liens databases on Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw allows you to
search the UCC databases of nearly all states at once.

F. CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS
Companies are usually quite resistant to disclosing the names of their largest customers or suppliers.
Publicly traded corporations have to reveal this information in their 10-K filing only if the company
is heavily dependent on a small number of customers or suppliers, since that is a significant risk
factor that investors need to know about. However, smaller companies may list the larger firms they
do business with in order to impress investors.
For this reason, useful information about your target companys customer or suppliers may not come
from the companys own SEC filings but rather from those of other public companies it deals with.
You would find this out by doing a full-text search of the entire EDGAR database (see above) for
references to your target company. One of the best search engines for doing this is the one on the
Morningstar Document Research (formerly 10-K Wizard) website.
Another approach is to take advantage of the fact that many companies will brag about their dealings
with large companies on their websites and will often provide links to their major customers sites.
Several of the major web search engines allow you to search for links to a particular site, so you can
enter your target companys domain names and see what links turn up.
If you want to know which companies supply a particular product, the best source is the Thomas
Register, a guide to products manufactured in North America. The multi-volume work can be found
in larger reference libraries or in limited form on the web.
Government Contracts
Among a companys customers, perhaps the more significant are government agencies, since a
corporate campaign can demand that an anti-union or socially irresponsible firm not enjoy the
privilege of doing business with the public sector.
States are beginning to put contract information online through the websites of procurement
agencies. Otherwise, you can contact the relevant agency directly (and may be asked to file a
freedom of information request). A subscription website called Onvia provides data on state and local
government procurement opportunities.
Information on federal contracts has traditionally been available through the Federal Procurement
Data System, which is produced under the auspices of the General Services Administration. You can
also look for references to federal contract awards in the Commerce Business Daily, which is
searchable online. A more comprehensive and accessible online source of contract information was
introduced by OMB Watch in October 2006. The site,Fedspending.org, provides details of individual
awards as well as annual summaries of the activities of particular contractors, with the results
grouped by parent company. It also has data on federal grants and loans to businesses as well as
individuals. Subsequently, the federal government created its own site patterned on
Fedspenging: USASpending.gov.
Brand Names, Trademarks & Advertising
Public companies usually mention their leading brands in the portion of the 10-K that describes the
firms operations. For a comprehensive list of brand names and the companies that own them, consult
reference works such as Brands and Their Companies which is published in print form by the
Gale Group and is available electronically on the Dialog database service.
Information on company trademarks (as well as patents) can be found at the website of the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
The leading reference works on advertising, known informally as the Red Books, are theStandard
Directory of Advertisers and the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies, both published by
National Register Publishing. You can purchase online access to the books. For a list of the leading
national advertisers, see Ad Ages annual compilation (click on Data Center).
For information on which companies are sponsoring which events, see Sponsorship.com.
Market Shares
The Gale Group publishes an annual volume called Market Share Reporter that collects data from
trade journals and other sources on the rankings of the top companies in a large number of business
sectors. It is available electronically in the Market Library of Lexis-Nexis.

Trade Shows
Trade shows are events at which companies display their wares to customers and potential customers.
They are thus useful for gathering intelligence about a companys marketing plans. Some corporate
campaigners also find them useful opportunities to put public pressure on a company. To learn about
upcoming trade shows at which your target company may exhibit, tryTSNN or ExhibitorNet.


Exports and Imports
The leading source of data on international shipment of goods is an expensive service
calledPIERS (Port Import/Export Reporting Services), which is available online directly from the
company or via Lexis-Nexis. A new service called Panjiva provides profiles of global suppliers,
including data on their shipments.

III. ANALYZING A COMPANYS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY RECORD
Companies also have relationships with their employees and with the communities in which they do
business. The way they conduct these relationships is known as the companys social responsibility
record. All too many companies behave in an irresponsible mannerbreaking the law, violating
regulations, mistreating workers, despoiling the environment and manipulating public policy through
lobbying and campaign contributions. Investigating these issues is an essential part of any thorough
corporate research project.
A. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PROFILES AND RATINGS; DISSIDENT WEBSITES
The corporate accountability movement has grown in size and sophistication over the past two
decades. One of the outcomes of this is that various organizations provide useful profiles of the social
responsibility record of large companies. Among these are the following:
The Corporate Research Project provides dossiers on the misconduct track record of many large
companies in our Corporate Rap Sheets collection.
The Global Corporations portal on the Source Watch website has critical entries on numerous
companies.
The French website Transnationale compiles critical information on some 13,000 companies
around the world; access to detailed data requires a subscription.
The Dutch organization SOMO has dossiers on numerous multinational corporations.
The website of UK-based Corporate Watch has a collection of corporate profiles.
George Draffan's Endgame Research website has a collection of company profiles focused on the
forest products industry.
SocialFunds.com has a section called the Corporate Research Center that provides links to social
responsibility information on hundreds of companies.
The GoodGuide has ratings of consumer products and the companies that produce them.
Co-Op America has a site called Responsible Shopper that rates about 350 consumer products
companies according to workplace, environmental and disclosure issues.
KLD Research & Analytics has what is perhaps the most comprehensive database of social
responsibility profiles. Unfortunately, the service, called SOCRATES, is aimed at institutional
investors and is thus very expensive. For more information, see KLDs site.
The Business & Human Rights website does not have profiles, but it contains a valuable collection
of links to articles, reports and other documents about more than 4,000 corporations.
For current news about corporate misdeeds, one of the best (but expensive) sources is the
weekly Corporate Crime Reporter. Also see the less frequently published but still
valuableMultinational Monitor, which has a free online archive.
Another source of information on the business practices of companies, including very small ones, is
the Better Business Bureau, which has been collecting consumer complaints since 1912. The Bureau
has a website that contains a search engine through which you can research the reputation of business
establishments (at least as measured by the number of customer complaints) throughout the country.
Dissident websites
Another source of critical (though not always accurate) information on companies are websites that
have been created by people who have a grievance against the firm, who disagree with its policies, or
who just dont like it. See, for example, I Hate Starbucks. It has also become common for unions or
environmental groups that are engaged in a corporate campaign against a company to create such a
site. Use a general search engine such as Google to find such sites on your target company.

B. COURT PROCEEDINGS
Investigating a companys involvement in litigation is useful for two reasons. First, it says something
about a firms way of operating if it frequently ends up as a defendant in lawsuits over matters such
as race and sex discrimination, defective products and antitrust violations not to mention outright
fraud. Second, in the course of legal proceedings, companies will often be required to divulge
information that might otherwise never make it into the public domain. The latter is also true in court
proceedingsespecially divorces--involving a top executive or owner of your target company.
The place to begin, if you are dealing with a public company, is the 10-K filing (see above), which
contains a section called Legal Proceedings. Companies are supposed to use this section to describe
any legal matters that could have a material impact on the firms finances. Some companies choose
to interpret this narrowly and say little or nothing about litigation; other firms may provide a long
narrative of legal issues.
The 10-K is just a starting point, so you need how to do an independent litigation search. There are
four main types of court information that you can access:
Dockets
These are lists of pending and recently closed cases that contain basic information about the nature of
the case, the parties involved and a chronology of events (motions, rulings, etc.) in the case. Until a
few years ago, the only way to search dockets was to go to the courthouse where the case was filed.
Today nearly all federal courts and a growing number of state courts have put their dockets online.
The dockets of federal district, appellate and bankruptcy courts can be accessed through a fee-based
system called PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), which is run by the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. In order to use the system you must open an account and
pay a modest fee based on usage. In addition to providing access to individual courts, PACER
provides access to a Case Locator, which allows you to search all federal court dockets at once for
cases in which a specific company or individual is a party.
Courtlink, a commercial service owned by Lexis-Nexis, provides a more convenient and speedier
system for accessing PACER information, though at a substantially higher price. Westlaw also
provides access to PACER docket information.
The U.S. Tax Court, which hears cases brought by companies and individuals challenging IRS
notices of deficiency, puts its docket online. Tax Court cases are important to check, because they
may require a company to put its tax return into the public record.
State courts have been somewhat slower in putting their dockets online, but they are starting to catch
up. For a list of which courts are available electronically, check LLRX.com. Courtlink also provides
access to some state court dockets. If you do a large amount of docket checking, you may want to
subscribe to a pay website called Courtport (formerly Legal Dockets Online), which provides a
comprehensive set of links to PACER and state court sites. On the other hand, if you have a tight
budget and prefer free access, the website Justia provides name searches of federal dockets going
back to 2004.
Court filings
Once your docket search has turned up an interesting case, the way to find out more about the matter
is to look at the actual documents that have been filed by the parties. These would include things
such as the original complaint (in a civil matter) or indictment (in a criminal matter), briefs, motions,
depositions and transcripts of court proceedings. In the past , these documents were available only in
hard-copy form at the clerks office of the court in which the case was filed.
The federal courts, however, have been developing an extension of PACER that allows subscribers to
view images of court filings on their home or office computer. The list of links to court sites on
the PACER Service Center site indicates which ones are posting document images.
Verdicts, Judgments and Liens
There are a variety of reporting services around the country that collect information about significant
verdicts in civil cases. There are also some that collect nationwide data. For example, there is a pay
site called VerdictSearch. A number of services are collected in the Verdicts Library on Lexis-Nexis
and on Westlaw.
Financial judgments in civil matters become a matter of public record as do liens on property and
federal and state tax liens. You can search these records at the county courthouse in the jurisdiction
where the action occurred. If you want to do a wider search, use services such asKnowX, the Liens
Library on Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw.
Written opinions
Lawyers and legal researchers review written opinions via expensive services such as Lexis-Nexis or
Westlaw. Both allow you to search for cases in which a particular company was a party and to
display the full text of the opinions. At the federal level, more and more courts are putting their
opinions on the web. See the websites of individual courts; for a list of links, see the Federal
Judiciary site or Courtport (see above).
Legal representation
To find out which law firms are used by the 250 largest companies in the United States, see the
annual list called Who Defends Corporate America, which is published by the National Law
Journal. The list can be found online (click on Surveys and Rankings). Determining which law firms
list a particular company as a client can also be done by searching the electronic version of the
Martindale-Hubbell directory on Lexis-Nexis.

C. FEDERAL REGULATORY MATTERS
The Securities and Exchange Commission
The SEC, which regulates publicly traded companies as well as entities and individuals involved in
the securities industry, has been much in the news because of controversy over its failure to prevent
or even detect the spate of corporate financial scandals in recent years. The SEC does, however,
engage in enforcement. The agencys website contains an archive of Litigation Releases dating back
to September 1995; Lexis-Nexis has an archive that goes back decades. The SEC site also
has information about administrative proceedings of its Division on Enforcement. Also check out
the Securities Class Action Clearinghouse for information on fraud lawsuits brought on behalf of
investors against public companies.

Federal Trade Commission
The FTC enforces a variety of consumer protection laws and shares enforcement of the antitrust laws
with the Department of Justice. The Commissions website contains an archive of actions it has taken
since 1996. The Trade Library on Lexis-Nexis has an archive of consent decrees that companies have
signed with the FTC since 1980. It also has an archive of Justice Department final judgments during
that same period.

Federal product regulators
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has an archive of product recalls and other commission
actions. The Food and Drug Administration has an archive of safety alerts and product recalls. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has an archive of motor vehicle recalls. There is
also a federal site called Recalls.gov that has data from various agencies in one place.
For more on product safety, see the website of the non-profit Underwriters Laboratories, which
includes a database of which products it has certified.

General Services Administration
The GSA, which oversees federal purchasing, maintains a list of those individuals and companies
that have been barred from doing business with the federal government for violations of various
kinds; it is called the Excluded Parties List System. See also the Federal Contractor Misconduct
Database, which is assembled by the Project On Government Oversight.

Other federal regulatory agencies
For a list of links to enforcement, inspection, product recall and debarment data from a wide range of
federal regulatory agencies, see the Enforcement page of the Dirt Diggers Digest.
See below for information relating to the National Labor Relations Board, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Federal Election Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.

D. LABOR RELATIONS AND EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
Public company 10-K filings (see above) contain a section indicating the number of employees and
(sometimes) the portion of the workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Companies
that deal with unions to a significant extent may also name the unions, indicate how many employees
are members and give a description of the general state of labor relations. In almost all cases, the
company will say that those relations are good.
On the other hand, there is substantial evidence that this countrys low level of unionization is in
large part a result of anti-union animus on the part of many employers. A key way to document a
companys labor relations record is to look at the unfair labor practice (ULP) charges that have been
filed against it by unions or individual workers.
The website of the National Labor Relations Board has an archive of the agencys written decisions
going back to the 1930s. To do a comprehensive search of ULPs that may have been filed against a
company, as well as other aspects of a firms labor practices, the best source was the Labor Database
CD-ROM compiled by the Food and Allied Service Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. Among its
contents were:
an index of all ULPs since 1990;
data on NLRB elections since 1990;
data on collective bargaining agreements filed with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service since 1990;
compliance data since 1996 relating to the Fair Labor Standards Act (overtime, minimum wage
and child labor violations), Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Act (prevailing wage violations);
the Family Medical Leave Act and other employment laws; and
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases since 1989.
Unfortunately, FAST no longer exists, and no other organization has stepped in to make those
databases readily available. Bits and pieces of the data are available from various sources. For
example, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards has an online
archive of collective bargaining agreements covering 1,000 or more workers. Click here to see an
index by employer name.
The AFL-CIO has an internal database that contains more extensive data showing which companies
have relationships with which unions. Requests to access the database must usually come through an
international union. The AFL-CIOs Union Label and Service Trades Department has provides a
public directory of union-made products and services. That site also has the current version of the
AFL-CIO boycott list.
Information on union-busting companies can be found on the website of the organization American
Rights at Work, especially the section called Anti-Union Network. The group also issues an annual
list of union-friendly employers.
Decisions of U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judges on cases involving matters such
as black lung claims, ERISA disputes and whistleblower cases can be found here.
DOL also has a disclosure page with information on foreign labor certifications (including pay
levels) given to companies that claim they have to import foreign workers to the United States to
perform certain jobs.
FreeErisa has information on employee benefits derived from U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500
filings by benefit plans.
One way to find EEOC cases is to search by company name in the archive of press releases on the
Commission's website; it goes back to 1994.
A website called Glassdoor has company-specific salary information posted anonymously by
employees.
The best news sources on U.S. labor relations are publications of the Bureau of National Affairs:
the Daily Labor Report and Labor Relations Week. If you subscribe to these expensive
publications online, you can search for past articles that mention your target company. The BNA
newsletters are also available on Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw. Also see the online archive of the rank-
and-file-oriented newsletter Labor Notes.
International labor relations
A good source of information on U.S.-based transnationals and other large corporations are the
websites of the international union federations that bring together unions from various countries.
The Global Unions website is a handy starting point for exploring these organizations and their
resources.
Foreign sweatshops
In recent years, more and more information has come to light about the dismal working conditions of
third world factories that supply multinational corporations. Here are some sources for information
about sweatshops:
National Labor Committee
Worker Rights Consortium
Sweatshop Watch
United Students Against Sweatshops

E. WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Health and safety conditions on the job have been a matter of public controversy since the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution. For the past three decades in the United States, those conditions have
been regulated by a federal agency, the Labor Departments Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. To carry out its mandate, OSHA is supposed to conduct periodic inspections of
workplaces and cite employers for any violations that are found. The OSHA website has
a database that contains the results of every inspection the agency has carried out since 1972.
The Mine Safety and Health Administrations Data Retrieval System contains accident and violation
histories for specific mines as well as inspection dust sampling data.

F. ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE
One of the ways in which many companies fail to act in a socially responsible manner is by violating
environmental regulations, which all too many corporate executives regard as an annoyance rather
than a means of protecting public health. Environmental regulation in the United States is conducted
both at the federal level through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and at the state
level.
The EPA website is a source of a great deal of data on environmental matters. Start at theEnvirofacts
page, which allows you to search a variety of EPA databases at once for data on a particular
geographic location. If you enter the zip code of a facility of your target company, Envirofacts will
give you information such as the following:
data on your target facility and others located in the same zip code that produce air pollution (from
Aerometric Information Retrieval System)
data on toxics (from the Toxics Release Inventory)
data on hazardous waste (from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act database and from
the Superfund list of the worst hazardous waste sites)
data on water quality (from the National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database and
the Permit Compliance System).
Envirofacts also has a feature that maps much of this information. Environmental Defense has a
valuable site that combines data from the Envirofacts databases and other sources to give a
comprehensive profile of the environmental condition of a given location. You can also access the
EPA data through the Right-to-Know Network website.
In 2002 the EPA made a major advance in disclosure with the launch of a pilot website containing
enforcement data on some 800,000 regulated facilities nationwide. The service, called Enforcement
and Compliance History Online (ECHO), contains information relating to Clean Air Act stationary
sources, Clean Water Act facilities with direct discharge permits (under the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System), and generators/handlers of hazardous waste regulated under the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. It also provides information on state enforcement data.
For links to environmental groups working in various areas, see the Environmental Organization
Web Directory.

G. CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOBBYING
Corporations are barred from making direct contributions to federal candidates, but they do find other
ways to greatly influence the political process. These include individual contributions by company
executives, contributions through company Political Action Committees (PACs) and company
contributions to political parties. The latter, known as soft money contributions, have been outlawed
by federal campaign reform legislation (though it appears companies are finding ways around the
restrictions).
These various kinds of contributions are part of the public record and are disclosed via reports issued
by the Federal Election Commission. The FEC website has a database with lists of contributions and
files with images of the original documents.
Several organizations have taken the FEC data and created websites with extensive analysis and
better searching capabilities. Among the best of these is the Open Secrets site of the Center for
Responsive Politics. It contains, for example, excellent analyses of contribution patterns by industries
and interest groups. CQ MoneyLine has more extensive historical data, but you have to pay a
subscription fee to access all of its features.
State contribution data was slower to come on line, but the Institute on Money in State Politicshas
done a heroic job in gathering the information and putting it in a uniform searchable format on
its Follow the Money site, which allows for searches by contributor or recipient in specific states or
across the entire country. For some states the information starts as early as 1990. Note that some
states allow direct campaign contributions by corporations.
For access to the personal financial disclosure forms filed by members of Congress and top federal
officials, see the Open Secrets site.
Lobbying and Revolving Door
Federal lobbyists have to submit semi-annual reports to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of
the House identifying their clients and the amount of income they receive. Companies have to report
their overall lobbying expenditures and the names of any lobbyists employed as part of an in-house
lobbying effort. The Senate has put its filings online in a database that allows you to search by the
name of the client. A good compilation of available data can be found on the Lobbying
Database created by the Center for Responsive Politics.
For lists of which lobbyists represent a given company, you can also consult the print
volumesWashington Representatives (which is published by Columbia Books) or a subscription
website called Lobbyists.info. Another source is the Government Affairs Yellow Book, which is
published by Leadership Directories and is also available along with other directories on a CD-ROM
or a subscription website.
State websites contain a list of the lobbyists registered in the legislature. For links to those site,
see here.
Many lobbyists are former elected officials and their aides. For a database of individuals who have
passed through the revolving door, see the Open Secrets website.

H. PUBLIC RELATIONS, CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY AND SPONSORED RESEARCH
Public relations is essentially a process of lobbying the public, either directly or through the media.
Large companies spend large amounts of money to build their image. Think, for example, of the ad
campaigns that the likes of tobacco maker Philip Morris and Wal-Mart have conducted to publicize
corporate disaster relief efforts.
Companies use both in-house personnel and outside public relations agencies to carry out these
initiatives. The National Directory of Corporate Public Affairs, published by Columbia Books, is
the best collection of information on corporate flacks. See also ODwyers Directory of Public
Relations Firms, published by J.R. ODwyer & Co., which also provides data online. To keep up
with trends in corporate propaganda, see the website PR Watch, which has profiles of industry front
groups on its SourceWatch page. For information on which companies are sponsoring which events,
see Sponsorship.com.
One of the more aggressive forms of p.r. is manipulation of scientific research. For information on
industry ties to scientists and non-profits, see the Center for Science in the Public Interestdatabase.
Charitable contributions are one of the ways that companies do public relations. Sometimes
companies set up their own foundations to conduct this activity. For larger companies, check the
website to see if there is a report on philanthropic activities. The Corporate Giving Directoryhas
data on direct contributions by companies. The Foundation Center, whose website is the best online
source of information on corporate and other foundations, publishes the National Directory of
Corporate Giving. A newer resource is NOZA, a database that assembles details of charitable
contributions by individuals as well as companies.
Private foundations, like other non-profits, must file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service
(the private foundation version is called the 990-PF). These documents, which are public records,
contain a great deal of information about the finances of the foundation and usually contain a list of
the organizations that have received grants. Scanned images of 990s can be accessed on the web
at Guidestar or the Foundation Center's 990 Finder site.
Some states also regulate charities and may have reporting requirements in addition to the 990. For a
list of links to such states, see the Portico site.

I. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Excessive pay for top corporate executives is a perennial problem in corporate America. Finding out
how much CEOs and other top dogs in publicly traded companies earn is not difficult. The
information including stock option data is spelled out down to the dollar in the companys proxy
statement (Form DEF 14A), which can be obtained online through the EDGAR system (see above).
For faster access to summary compensation information on a company, there are subscription
services such as eComp. Excellent analytical material on compensation and other corporate
governance issues can be found on The Corporate Library, subscription service.
Useful free data can be found on the the AFL-CIOs Executive Paywatch site. For more on the issue
of CEO pay, see the website of United for a Fair Economy.

J. GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
Over the past few decades, corporate executives have come to expect that government will subsidize
their operations in one way or another. The federal tax code and the tax policies of the states provide
a myriad of subsidies for particular types of companies or business in general. Yet there are also
programs that provide individual companies with special tax abatements/exemptions or direct grants,
loans or loan guarantees. These benefits, often called corporate welfare, are usually justified in the
name of economic growth or development.
At the federal level, there are several programs that promote U.S. exports or foreign investment by
U.S. companies:
The Commerce Departments Advanced Technology Program, which funds corporate research.
The programs website has a list of funded projects.
The Export-Import Bank, which provides loans and loan guarantees to promote sales of U.S.
goods to overseas buyers. Its website has an archive of annual reports that list sellers and buyers.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which provides political research insurance.
OPICs website does not have a database of clients, but the site does archive press releases and
annual reports that list companies receiving OPIC aid.
Some companies are recipients of farm subsidies offered through the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. A database of recipients of such subsidies has been compiled by theEnvironmental
Working Group.
Cities and states offer subsidies to companies to induce them to move their headquarters or locate a
factory or other facility in a given jurisdiction. About two-thirds of the states disclose which
companies are receiving subsidies in one or more of their major programs. This disclosure often
takes place via obscure reports and web pages.
In December 2010 Good Jobs First introduced Subsidy Tracker, a database that brings together
information from numerous state disclosure sites in one national search engine. The Good Jobs
First website contains various other resources on subsidy disclosure.
One other national resource related to a form of state subsidies is EMMA (short for Electronic
Municipal Market Access), a database produced by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Its
provides access to prospectuses known as Official Statements that are issued in connection with
industrial development bonds (also known as industrial revenue bonds) issued by state and local
governments to provide low-cost financing to certain comp