12. Parent Company
12.1 Is the company a parent or a subsidiary company?
12.2 Is the parent U.S. or foreign-owned?
If your target firm is owned by a larger parent company, it is often a game-changer. What you may initially think is a local or regional firm may in fact be part of a global firm. In many instances parent companies often have representatives on the Board of Directors. These global firms may be much more difficult to organize or bargain with. At the same time, being part of a larger parent may provide other opportunities.
Businesses must register with the Secretary of State office in the state they are located. Search Systems provides a meta search for all states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada. The best way to proceed is to choose “Corporations and Companies” and then select the state or province where the firm is headquartered. This will bring you to one or more corporate directories. This may vary by state or province. You can also search by state or province alone and explore all the possible information that is collected.
Open Corporates also provides access to public records on privately held firms worldwide.
Paid Resources (Subscription Required)
Dunn and Bradstreet Million Dollar Directory allows you to link-down to subsidiaries as well as link-up to a larger parent company through their Family Tree. The UMass library, allows you to link-down to subsidiaries as well as link-up to a larger parent company. NewsBank also provides basic information on corporations.
Mergent Intellect and Westlaw are also comprehensive corporate business database and both provide information on corporate family trees.