Kresge Research Guides: Company, Industry and Consumer Research for Business Planning: Company Research

Venture Capital, Private Equity and other Deals Data

PitchBook
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Available to Ross MBAs, Pitchbook covers VE, PE and other deals across a number of different criteria including types of deal, geography, size of deal and industries, verticals and keywords.
Orbis M&A (formerly Zephyr)
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Information about Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Initial Public Offering (IPO), Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) deals, going back five years for international deals and back to 1997 for deals involving European and American companies.
PrivCo
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PrivCo contains business and financial research for over 600,000 non-publicly traded corporations, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies. Search for Venture Capital (VC) fundings, private Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) deals, Private Equity (PE) deals, and general company information.

Company Directories

D&B Hoovers
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D&B Hoovers has public and private company profiles for US and global companies. Profiles include company descriptions and history, financials and ratios, hierarchy/corporate family tree data, SWOT analysis, news, competitors, SIC industry codes, NAICS industry codes, SEC filings, and annual reports. The “Build a List” function allows users to create a company list based on numerous parameters
and filters. Industry content includes constituents and analysis that include RMA Industry Norms, MarketLine Industry Profiles, and Fredonia Focus reports.
Technical notes: Company lists downloads are limited to 100 records. If you encounter a login screen, all seats are in use. Try connecting using the “UM users” link or at a later time.

Technical note:If you encounter a login screen, all seats are in use. Try connecting at a later time. Subscription includes 25 seats which are shared across all 3 UM campuses.
Mergent Online
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Current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, bond ratings, capital stock, insider trading and supply chain for US and foreign companies. Mergent Online also provides access to Investext analyst reports.
Help guide

Technical notes: Company reports and financials can be exported to Excel.
Help guide

Company valuation

Finding a better way to valuate companies in the Digital World
From the Knowledge@Wharton site, the author says that in "a world rapidly switching to digital business models, the old ways of classifying industries and measuring business performances do not suffice."
Methods for Valuation of Seed Stage Startup Companies
From the Angel Capital Association, with links to additional information on the Venture Capital, Berkus, Scorecard Valuation and Risk Factor methods.
Ten Top Techniques for Startup Valuation
From the consultancy Startup Professionals, Inc.
How Startup Valuations Work - Measuring a company's potential
Founders and Funders provides this infographic and article on the process and the concepts behind valuation

Performance ratios

Industry and company financial ratios help compare a company against other companies in an industry, or generally measure financial performance. Industry ratios are an aggregate measure of performance, often broken down by company size.

Business Ratios and Formulas: A Comprehensive guide (ebook)
An ideal tool for measuring corporate performance, this authoritative resource allows managers and auditors to pick and choose the tools they need to best assess their organization's performance. Each formula includes a complete description, explanation of the calculation, an example, and cautions regarding its use. The cautions are of particular use, since they describe those elements of a measurement that can be modified to deliver misleading results, different measurements that may work better in certain situations, usage on a trend line basis, and which other measurements should be used to reinforce indicated results.
16 Financial Ratios for Analyzing a Company’s Strengths and Weaknesses
From the The American Association of Individual Investors, a quick guide to company performance ratios
Financial Ratio Analysis