How can I get information on the ownership of a privately held Company?
Call the secretary of state in the state the company is incorporated. Every state requires an annual report from all companies that
incorporate within the state. The reports are public. Some are accessible online. If you are a corporation you file one too. Ask your chief financial officer what is filed for your own company that will give you some idea what you can get from the secretary of state. Often you can get sales, company officers, ucc filings and company liens.
What
is the difference between corporate espionage and competitive intelligence
gathering and analysis?
There
is a big difference. In response to press reports about Oracle’s use of
a private investigation firm to research Microsoft, we need to
clarify that Competitive Intelligence (CI) is not corporate espionage.
Espionage is the use of illegal means to gather information. On the other
hand, CI is the process of gathering data using legal, ethical means and
turning it into valuable intelligence through careful analysis. A recent
policy analysis conducted by SCIP showed that CI practitioners who act
consistently within the SCIP code of ethics should not run afoul of the
Economic Espionage Act of 1996, the law which governs CI activities.
Robert Douglas, a former private investigator who is now a security and
privacy consultant, said investigators often cross legal and ethical lines
on behalf of corporate clients, who generally do not ask how information
is obtained. "You go out and get as much as possible about your
opponent, your opponent's associates. It's 'competitive
intelligence,'" said Douglas, who has testified about such practices
before Congress.
-- From "Oracle Admits to Probe: Company Paid for Dirt on
Microsoft," Washington Post, June 29, 2000.
How can I get the salary and employment contract of the CEO of my
competitor ?
Look
at their 10Q SEC filing.
What
is Profound? $$$$$
Profound
is the online business service designed to deliver the data you need for
your decision making, every day, without information overload. Suitable
for end users and professional searchers, Profound provides access into
the world's most valuable business database. Due
to the unique indexing, Profound provides you with exactly the data you require from over 100 million pages
of structured, high quality business information. There is a charge for
this service that is based on what you purchase. There is also a software
package that you download from their site to access their database.
What
is Strategy Software? $$$$$
Headquartered
in Kirkland, WA, Strategy Software provides complete solutions to
organizations to track and analyze their competitive environment,
including understanding competitors’ products, processes, key people and
more. Companies that use Strategy
Software to sharpen their competitive edge include Lexis-Nexis,
AlliedSignal, AT&T Wireless, MasterCard, Bausch & Lomb, Honeywell,
Lucent Technologies, KPMG, Westinghouse Electric and Corning Glass.
What
is Cognos? $$$$$
Cognos
business intelligence (BI) is the cornerstone of e-business success. It
lets you use information quickly to make better e-business decisions. And
it lets you share
information with customers and your supply chain to forge highly
effective, lasting e-business relationships. Cognos BI also delivers the
infrastructure you need to meet the unique IT challenges of the Internet
economy, including: Many data sources, Many users and Faster development
cycles. The Cognos Platform is the first and only solution to provide true
end-to-end coverage of all end-users needs, both inside and outside the
organization, while also delivering the unified data infrastructure that's
critical to running a business today. The Cognos Platform is built
for e-business and ready for Internet, extranet, and intranet
deployments.
What
is V-Commex?
V-Commex
is one of the newest and most advanced International Trade portals. In
one easy-to-access location, V-Commex gives today's business all the
resources and connections they need to do business around the world! V-CommeX.com is a leading provider of end-to-end, Internet-based solutions for
international trade. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, one of the world’s
most active international trade zones, V-CommeX.com
provides businesses around the globe with information and secure
transaction services to facilitate their international trade operations.
What
is Moreover?
Moreover uses dynamic indexing technology to deliver up-to-the-minute news,
business intelligence, and other information across the web. The company's
Dynamic Web Database and editorial processes allow clients, partners, and
end-users to:
- find and use fresh, relevant, valuable information
- provide near-real time access to new, emerging content from
thousands of sources
- painlessly integrate dynamic content into any site, platform, or
application
- use diverse data formats to adapt, structure, and apply dynamic.
Moreover works closely with businesses and developers to deliver
comprehensive, intelligent information for any kind of site or enterprise.
Founded in 1998, the company has offices in San Francisco and London.
How
can I track changes in my competitor's website?
Simple,
here is how and why you want to do it. We are in the middle of a new phase
of the Web, where companies concentrate on making their web-based
information dynamic and personalized. Sites want to bring users back
to visit on an on-going basis. They want to better meet individual
needs. They want to create personal relationships with their
customers, partners, suppliers and employees.
Now consider your own Web usage. How do you
know when the information you use has changed? The most obvious answer is
to visit the Web site. This method can work if someone tracks just a
couple of sites daily. But what do you do when, as a product manager in a
highly competitive market, you must keep on top of the activities of
several competitors, which means tracking their Web sites daily. In
addition, you must keep on top of other information posted on your
company's intranet. How do you track additional information that's
important to you, say changes in company policies or information of
personal interest, such as stock prices? Lastly, how can you tell
when that information has changed? If the scenario above is realistic, you
could be tracking four to ten sites a day just to look for changed
information. If you rely on the method of re-visiting Web sites, the
important information you wanted to know about may have changed but you
were never alerted.
Today, individuals and companies have found
themselves looking for ways to "mind," that is find and manage,
the mass of information available to them on the Internet. To help people
"mind" the Web, NetMind has
developed a solution for both the consumer and enterprise markets, which
combines the ability to track information that's important to the user and
deliver it through a variety of means, including email, cell phones,
pagers and PDAs.
What is Company Sleuth?
It is just the best kept secret on the internet. You can register for free. You will get a username and a password. Once you complete the registration form, and select the publicly traded companies you would like to sleuth, you will receive a daily email
containing free inside information from the following sources, New Patents, SEC Filings, Earnings Estimates, Stock Quotes, New
Trademarks, Press Releases, Business News, Stock Rumors, Federal Litigation. It is awesome and it is free. Go sign up. The email starts coming the day after you sign up.
I am interested in selling my company to a public company. How can I get information on what they have paid for other companies like mine?
Go to EDGAR. Search for your company and look for their SEC
filings Locate a report called the 10Q. This is a quarterly report filed by every public
company with the Securities and Exchange Commission Washington, DC. It is a requirement of the SEC act of 1934. Before the internet it was available, but virtually inaccessible except to brokerage firms and law firms who knew it existed and knew here to locate it. It is now publicly accessible. If you search the company's 10Q, you will find a copy of the salary and employment contract of the company's CEO. Why is it in the 10Q? Because it is a material item to the operation of the company and because employment contracts
usually, must be approved by the Company's board of directors and these items are included in the 10Q.
What are some great undiscovered internet links that will give me an edge on my competitor?
Stats from the Department of Commerce.
Argus's Clearinghouse web page.
A Business Compass
international links including Embassies and Consulates.
Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals
Carr Research Group
A private competitive intelligence consulting firm
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/stats.html
Statistical resources on the web. Whether you are looking for the value of cut corn or the % of the population who smoked between 1965 and 1993 ... this is the place.
Daily updates from 35 local business papers.
Knowledge of the local business and cultural scene.
Free internet access to public records
300 state and county links for real estate taxes and corporate status information.
New Media Resources
This site is called
webmergers.com, published
by new media resources, a source of information and analysis of mergers and acquisitions involving Web sites. This knowledge base is a valuable asset for identifying M&A trends and for valuing Web companies. You can buy and sell web sites at this site.
Basic information to full profiles
of public, private, U.S. and international companies and institutions.
Frequently updated wire service stories
and edited columns on world markets, government, finance and business.
Up to the minute company, industry and financial news.
Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats
(SWOT)
A table with more than 60 different concepts to help you describe the state of your current company.
Link to EDGAR ...
the quickest way to get SEC filings on every EDGAR filing public company in the U.S.
A comprehensive site of links
to other web sites dedicated to the information needs of Executives and their support staff. From business news to sports to theatre ticket sources, this is the web site to bookmark! |