Business ResourcesHolly InglisPublic Services LibrarianMilt Harris Library, University of Toronto LibrariesJanuary 14, 2020

Overview

• Getting Started with Company Information

• Industry Information

• Market Research Basics

• Articles

Company Information

• Where can you get started?

Public Company Filings

Source: Ontario Securities Commission Disclosure Documents http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/en/Investors_disclosure-requirements_index.htm

Understanding Disclosure Documents

Source: Ontario Securities Commission. “Researching Your Investments” http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/documents/en/Investors/res_research-invest_en.pdf

Filings: The Gaps

• Not a thorough information source for company practices (employee numbers by subsidiary, HR practices, etc.)

• All subsidiaries may not be listed

• Financial categories can be too broad to find specific details needed

• Merger or acquisition information could be minimal

Private Companies

• Start-ups - until Initial Public Offering (IPO) if they go public

• Sole proprietorships

• Partnerships

• Corporations (shares are privately held, not publicly traded)

• Subsidiaries

• Less Common: private companies with public debt

Sources of Information

• Public Company Filings: SEDAR for Canada, EDGAR for the US

• Provincial Securities Authority: Ontario Securities Commission

• Information on incorporation documents, permits, other government sources of data: Government of Canada Business and Industry: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/business.html

• Competitors

• CrunchBase or TechCrunch

Subscription Sources of Information

• Analyst Reports, also known as Equity Research Reports (Investext)

• Subscription Databases: Mergent, Capital IQ, EMIS (International Coverage), Business Source Premier

• Finance Data – Bloomberg, FactSet, Thomson One/Eikon, Capital IQ

• Start-up: CB Insights, Thomson One Venture Capital/Private Equity

Free vs. Subscription

• Doesn’t Google Finance have the same info as Bloomberg?

• Why pay for information you can find online?

Company Exercise

• Search for the company provided in Mergent

• Can be found by going to Rotman Milt Harris Library website-> Databases by Subject -> Mergent

• Can you find the following:

1. When was the business started?

2. Looking at the most recent financial data, what was the revenue for the most recent year available?

3. Any interesting information you noticed while browsing the company profile?

4. Search for the company in the Investext tab. Does the latest analyst report list it as buy, sell, hold or other?

Industry Information

• Government websites: Statistics Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada(previously Industry Canada), provincial and municipal government websites, ALA BRASS Business Guides: https://brass.libguides.com/?b=g&d=a

• Subscription industry reports:• IBISWorld• MarketLine (in Business Source Premier)

• Frost & Sullivan• EMIS

• Mergent

NAICS & SIC

• North American Industry Classification Standard (NAICS) and Standard Industry Classification (SIC) are used to classify businesses by industry. This classification allows for data to be collected by standardized industry codes.

• NAICS Code Search: https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3VD.pl?Function=getVD&TVD=1181553

• SIC Code Search: https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html

Industry Exercise

• Go to the IBISWorld database

• Rotman Milt Harris Library website -> Databases by Subject -> IBISWorld

• Search for the industry provided. Select a report.

1. Where is this industry in the industry life cycle?

2. Which province or state has the most businesses?

3. Who are the predominant competitors? Look at market share to determine the largest.

Market Research

• Market research reports are expensive

• Market research data: market size, market share

• MaRS Library Collections (Startup Library/Entrepreneur’s Toolkit): https://www.marsdd.com/collections/

• Subscription: MarketResearch.com/Academic, Passport GMID

Looking beyond reports

• SimplyAnalytics

• eMarketer

• Passport GMID

• Statista

Newspaper and Trade Articles

• ProQuest (Canadian Business and Current Affairs)

• Factiva

Article Review

• Article: “Visa to pay $5.3 billion to buy fintech startup Plaid”

• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-plaid-m-a-visa/visa-to-pay-5-3-billion-to-buy-fintech-startup-plaid-idUSKBN1ZC2BF

• Read the article

• What are some information gaps here? Where could they look for more info?

• What kind of industry information is included in the article?

Questions?

Holly Inglis

Public Services Librarian, Milt Harris Library

holly.inglis@rotman.utoronto.ca - On research leave in 2020

Milt Harris Library bicstaff@rotman.utoronto.ca