Company Research  Tags: public_companies  

During the fall and spring semesters, Reference Librarians are available:

• Monday: 9 am to 10 pm
• Tuesday: 9 am to 10 pm
• Wednesday: 9 am to 10 pm
• Thursday: 9 am to 9 pm
• Friday: 9 am to 8 pm
• Saturday: 1 to 6 pm
• Sunday: 1 to 10 pm

Business Library Reference Desk: Room 2200 Grainger Hall 608-265-6202

Ask Business - email a Business Reference Librarian

When researching a company, it is important to know whether it is public, private or a subsidiary of a larger company.

Public companies are the easiest to research. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires them to provide detailed information on a quarterly basis and must also issue annual reports.

Subsidiaries of public companies can be difficult to research because the parent company is not required to report on each of them individually.

Private companies are not required to release any information about themselves and are therefore more challenging to research.

Click on the Directories tab above to see databases which identify companies as public, private or subsidiaries and provide basic company information.