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Company Affiliations & Top Management

Company Research / Company Affiliations & Top Management

Many large companies are made up of various subsidiaries and divisions. Often there is difficulty in finding detailed financial information on subsidiaries and divisions since only the parent, publicly held company is required to disclose financial information to the government.

What is a subsidiary or a division of a company?

"A subsidiary is a distinctly separate firm controlled by a `parent' company through the ownership of a majority of the subsidiary's stock or assets. . . . A division is a section of a company which performs a distinct function or operation" (Lavin 115).

Definitions From: Lavin, Michael R. (1992). Business Information: How to Find It, How to Use It. 2nd ed. Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press. Located: Ready Reference X HF5356.L36 1992.

In addition to discovering if the company in question is owned by a larger parent company, many business directories also give information on the company's top management. One word of caution: Company executives change quickly; so take note of the copyright date of the edition being used and check in current news sources to verify that there have not been very recent changes in company leadership.

I. Resources Available in Langsdale Library

LexisNexis corporate affiliations. Skokie, Ill: National Register Publishing Company, 1977-Present. (X HG4057.A219 [yr.]) Latest ed. in Ready Reference. Under each parent company listing is a list of officers and a listing of divisions and subsidiaries in hierarchial order. The source does give limited subsidiary information as well as provide an index by executives' names.

II. Langsdale Electronic Resources

A.Business and Company Resource Center [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 1979 - present. Profiles 400,000 companies. Provides company histories, business articles, industry rankings and analyses for selected public companies.

B. Hoover's Company Records[on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 2002-current. Find in-depth company information on over 5,000 companies with Hoover's Company Records. Each profile provides an overview and history, as well as as information on key people, products, subsidiaries and competitors.

C. ReferenceUSA [on-campus]
Coverage: Current. Provides directory, sales and employee size information for more than 12 million businesses in the U.S.

III. Resources on the Internet

A. Langsdale Business Research Links

B.The company's own web site. Often these include biographies of top management and information on subsidiaries and divisions. Note the "last updated" date on the page to indicate the currency of the information. Hoover's Online provides links to some company web sites. Yahoo and Google both have lists of Web Directories. Or use Langsdale's How To guide on Search Engines to locate a company's web site.

C. Securities and Exchange Commission lists publicly held company financial reports which may include top management and division/subsidiary information.

III. Ask a Langsdale Librarian.

You can call 410-837-4274 when the Library is open, email langref@ubalt.edu or chat at http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/info_services/contact.htm

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