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Company Research

Private Companies

A private company is a firm held under private ownership. Private companies may issue stock and have shareholders, but their shares do not trade on public exchanges and are not issued through an initial public offering (IPO).

Note: Unlike public companies, private companies do not have to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), so there is not the same amount of financial information, if any at all, to analyze.

However, two exceptions can sometimes be helpful. First, if the company you are researching merged with a public company, so the public company may provide investors information about the deal via SEC Filings. Second, if the company was once public but goes private, previous SEC Filings may still be available.

Private Companies

To find information about private companies in PrivCo: 

  • go to the Library page
  • click on "Databases" under the basic search box. It will take you to the A-Z Databases List
  • click on "P", and scroll down to "PrivCo Academic"
  • when the homepage opens, type the name of the private company in the search box on top of the page, and click on the search button

  • it will open a page including the company's Overview, Financials, Funding, and more

Note: PrivCo provides information about more than 380,000 private companies.

Example: Mars, Inc.

 

PrivCo homepage

PrivCo private company information: Marc, Inc.

To find information about private companies in Mergent Intellect: 

  • go to the Library page
  • go to "Find Resources", and click on "Databases". It will take you to the A-Z Databases List
  • click on "M", and scroll down to "Mergent Intellect"
  • go to " Advanced Search", limit the search to "Private" companies, click on "Add to Criteria", and then hit "Search"
  • you can refine your search by adding more criteria such as company name, location, industry, and more

 

Intellect advanced searching for private companies