D&B is the world's leading provider of business information, enabling business-to-business commerce for over 167 years. We gather our information through management interviews, public information, courthouse records, charter searches, the Internet, suppliers, and other sources. We have the largest company database available, with information on 120 million companies worldwide for your credit, marketing and purchasing decisions.

Our information and technology solutions help your business reduce credit risk, find profitable customers and manage vendors efficiently. Businesses rely on D&B for insight and consider us a trusted partner to make confident business decisions. .

Start year is the year that the company commenced operations. Control year is the year under which the current ownership of the company took effect.

We have experienced data collectors who conduct interviews with principals or senior management of businesses. This is supplemented by public record information (court house documents, financing statements, payment experiences, corporate charters, etc.).

Our business analysts will also search the Internet for financial information on public companies, corporate searches and other media-related items.

During the management review of a company, D&B attempts to determine if companies are publicly traded. When this information is not immediately available, we can confirm if a Canadian company is traded publicly by looking them up on SEDAR. If it’s listed on SEDAR, it should be a public company.

There are several different answers that describe a holding company.

Answer 1:  A holding company is one that controls other companies through stock ownership but that usually does not engage directly in their productive operations. This is distinguished from a parent company.

Answer 2:  A holding company can be described as a company whose primary business function is holding an interest in the securities (shares) of other companies. It may or may not participate in other business activities.

Answer 3:  A holding company is separate company that owns and controls other companies but that usually does not engage directly in daily operations. Holding companies are frequently set up for tax reasons. As such, many of them have no actual employees except for directors and high-level management.

A parent company can be described as a company which owns 51% or more of the voting shares of another company, regardless of its business function.

A parent company is typically an actual working company that may or may not generate products or services. A parent/subsidiary relationship indicates that the parent owns 51% or more of the subsidiary company.

We use a variety of sources to build and maintain our database, including government registries, court houses and other legal filings offices, the news, the Internet, media, and interviews with business principals, its customers and other interested third parties.

Here are some of the ways we ensure quality information:

The only companies that are required to provide financial statements are public and non-profit companies. The majority of businesses in our database are privately held. The business analyst’s job is to demonstrate the benefit of providing information to D&B. In fact, we are the only company that successfully provides financial statements on privately held businesses.
Public companies in our database have current financial statements reported. Our data collectors are required to ask all private organizations for their financial figures when conducting interviews.

D&B’s Family Tree Plus provides the following:

Agents — Links independently owned and operated agents, such as insurance and real estate agents, to companies with which they are affiliated (e.g. Allstate Insurance, Coldwell Banker Real Estate).

Franchises — Links independently owned and operated franchise locations to their franchisors (e.g. Burger King, McDonalds, Jiffy Lube).

Vehicle dealerships — Links individually owned and operated dealerships, such as auto or motorcycle dealers, with the manufacturers they represent (e.g. General Motors, Ford, Nissan).

Minority interest (related concerns) — Links companies that are affiliated through ownership of less than 50% of capital stock.

Non-profit chapters — Links non-profit organizations to each other, such as charities, professional membership organizations, unions and volunteer organizations. For example, the Rotary Club of Canada is linked to Rotary Club International.

Health care provider network — Links health care companies (such as hospitals) that form networks to share purchasing power, equipment, and professional and human resources.