It is easier to find information about public companies (those that sell stock to shareholders) than about private companies (those that are privately owned by an individual or a group). Public companies in the United States are required by law to file documents with the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC). These include the 10K (annual) and 10Q (quarterly) reports. In addition, public companies issue an annual report to shareholders.
When looking for information about a company, consider both information from the company itself (e.g., the company website, SEC filings, press releases, etc.) as well as information about the company written by others (e.g., newspaper articles, analyst reports, articles by professors, etc.).
Finding information about a company includes the following steps:
Subscription-based Databases
Public Websites
Information on private companies can be sparse. Private companies are not required to file any financial data in the U.S., with the exception of registration data filed with the Secretary of State, in the state where they are registered.
Databases like Mergent Intellect and Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) have some basic data on U.S. private companies and are available for free from the SF Public Library.
Often 'local press' have more stories on a locally based company than national newspapers (e.g. San Jose Mercury News versus The New York Times). Local newspapers can be found in the ProQuest Central or Nexis Uni databases.
Company websites provide detailed information about their products and services, organizational structure, and strategies. Public company websites typically have a section for investors that may include press releases, articles about the company, SEC filings and annual reports to shareholders, stock information, pointers to investment reports done by securities firms, quarterly conference call audio files, and the text of speeches by executives. This type of information is often in sections called something like "Investor Relations" or "About Us. Use information from the company carefully and watch for bias or an overly-optimistic interpretation of factual data.
What if you want to see the web site for a company that no longer exists? Or what if you are working on a case set some time in the past and want to see what the company's web site looked like then? Search the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive provides access to many company web sites back to 1996. Searching is by company URL.
Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram may provide useful company information in addition to that found in sources such as books and journal articles.
Companies may reveal significant information about themselves through their own social media sites, such as strategies, product and brand marketing approaches, and internal company operations.
Social media postings about companies, written by customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors, journalists, academics, detractors, and others, also contain significant information or pointers to significant information.
Individual social media tools can be searched for specific companies and brands; tools such as socialmention can be used to search multiple social media sites.