LibGuides: Company Research : Company History

Key Content on this page:

Company Histories

Predecessor and Defunct Companies

Company Histories - E-book & Print Resources

International Directory of Company Histories

Provides histories of companies that are a leading influence in a particular industry or geographic location. Includes public, private, nonprofit, and state-held companies with international coverage; extensive overviews featuring at-a-glance sections providing company narratives; key dates in company history; and key competitors. You can easily save company profiles to Google Drive and One Drive.

Some of these volumes are available in print as well. Call Number: BRONF REF HD 2721 I63

Moody's Manuals by Moodys
In the Bronfman Storage area Moodys manuals are available for multiple years and offer a great source of information when researching the history of North American companies especially from a financial/investment research perspective. Includes Moody's Industrial Manual, Moody's International Manual, Moody's Municipal and Government Manual, Moody's Public Utility Manual, and Moody's Transportation Manual.

Company Histories - Microfiche

Canadian Filings on Microfiche (Micromedia)
These are available in storage at the Bronfman Business Library and can be requested at the reference desk. These filings on fiche are available for Canadian publicly-traded companies back to the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Company Histories - Online

International Directory of Company Histories
Provides histories of companies that are a leading influence in a particular industry or geographic location. For students, job candidates, business executives, historians and investors. Includes public, private, nonprofit, and state-held companies with international coverage; extensive overviews featuring at-a-glance sections providing company contact information (address, phone, fax, web site), incorporation date; number of employees; sales data; stock exchange; NAICS codes; narrative company perspectives; key dates in company history; key competitors.

o This video provides an overview on how to use the database, including highlighting eBook view, content limiters, basic search and advanced search functionality. While this tutorial video highlights how to use the Google Drive/Microsoft One Drive integration, which allows users to save their highlights, notes, citations, and documents from their research session via cloud storage platforms.
Mergent Archives
Provides annual reports and other filings information back to the early 1900s. This includes over 108,000 Canadian documents, over 228,000 U.S. documents, and over 370,000 international documents. Also includes Mergent's full collection of digitized manuals dating back to the first manual published in 1909, digitized versions of the D&B Industry Norms/Key Business Ratios books back to 1979, as well as digitized D&B Million Dollar Directory Data Books (covering U.S. public and privately held companies) dating back to 1959.
Hoovers
Offers coverage of private and publicly-traded companies globally. Search by company name. Under About this Company click on Company History. Provides a good general history of corporations covered. The Historical Events tab offered for companies offers details about recent top executive changes.
Mergent Online
Search by desired company name. Under the Company Details tab click on the History subtab. Provides a detailed mergers and acquisitions history for publicly traded companies. Offers global coverage.
Financial Times Historical Archive 1888-2010
This is a great source for studying public affairs and financial history of the last 120 years. Every item printed in the paper, from 1888-2010, can be searched and browsed article by article and page by page. Topics covered include industry, energy, international politics, management, personal finance and arts. See under “Help” for search tips.
Economist Historical Archive 1843-2010
Provides access to the Economist online as a fully searchable digital collection from 1843-2010. Articles etc. are provided in PDF format, i.e. as they appear in the print version. Includes news, analysis, commentary, editorials, statistics, demographics, letters to the editor, obituaries, and historical photograph, as well as special surveys and supplements on countries and industries.

Predecessor and Defunct Companies

The following databases may be used to search for companies which are no longer active.

TSX CFMRC
Detailed current and historical stock information on TSX companies, including daily and monthly index data. Includes companies no longer traded on TSX.
Datastream
Worldwide equity coverage direct from the stock markets, comprehensive market indices, economics data direct from national government sources as well as the OECD and IMF, fixed income securities and associated indices, commodities and derivatives data and more. Includes companies which are no longer actively traded.
CRSP
This database provides acces to NYSE/AMEX/Nasdaq/NYSE Arca traded Daily and Monthly Security Prices and other historical data related to over 29,000 companies. Historic coverage available including companies which are no longer actively traded.
Investext via Mergent Online
Investext provides access to analyst reports for publicly-traded companies. The reports are produced by analysts from investment banks, brokerage houses, and consulting firms. Reports include analyses on company and industry financial performance, SWOTs, M&A, trends, challenges, and much more. Investext includes current and historical analyst reports. Quick search tips: (1) Search for a publicly-traded company’s most recent analyst reports using the Company Search field > On report landing page, click Reports tab > click Broker Research reports link; (2) To conduct more advanced searches such as historical reports, initiating coverage reports, or reports from specific investment banks, click on the Investext tab (far right-hand side tab) to go to the advanced search form.
Ontario Gazette

Search Tips

Search books for company histories. For books, search company name as a subject heading in the Omni.

Articles may be used to research company histories. Check out our Finding Business Articles Guide.

Also we recommend in particular our historical newspaper databases when researching aspects of company history. This page lists many databases that offer historical coverage of Canadian newspapers online including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, while this page lists databases, many of which have historical coverage of U.S. newspapers including the New York Times.

Company websites typically provide a historical overview of the organization.

Historical annual reports are also good sources for company history. See our historical annual reports listings for more information.