13. Subsidiaries

13.1 List subsidiaries, products, and locations.

Research­ing sub­sidiaries pro­vides you with fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the oper­a­tion and orga­ni­za­tion of your tar­get com­pany. They pro­vide you with the over­all shape and reach of the firm, which may extend far beyond what you orig­i­nally thought.

Information on subsidiaries is available in Form 10-K available from the SEC, the company annual report and the company web site. It is important to note that firms are structured very differently in terms of subsidiaries. Some firms have a very complex subsidiary structure, while others do not.  Some fold new acquisitions into the parent company, while others maintain them as subsidiaries. These differences may or may not be of any significance.

USAspending.gov can help you identify subsidiaries by searching for a company, clicking on an award, and clicking “view child recipients.”

CrocTail also provides links from parent companies to subsidiaries, and from subsidiaries to the ultimate parent.

Crunchbase is a free option for getting info on corporations, including acquisition history.

Paid Resources (Subscription Required)

Mergent Intellect allows you to link-down to subsidiaries as well as link-up to a larger parent company through their Family Tree.

ReferenceUSA and Westlaw are also comprehensive corporate business database and both provide information on corporate family trees.