Mergent Online: How to use it

Brings together business information resources that cover company financials, investment analysis reports, bond issues and biographical information on company executives. Also included are annual reports, historical coverage going back 30 years, and access to EDGAR filings back to the mid 1990's. Mergent Online includes information on 20,000 "inactive companies" that have merged, been acquired, or gone bankrupt (since 1995).

Contains industry analysis reports prepared by Mergent's team of industry specialists who synthesize hundreds of sources into an easy-to-digest format for a better understanding of business issues. Many specialists have advanced degrees and 10-15 years experience in business writing about companies and industries, with deep knowledge in specific areas such as banking and finance, computers and telecommunication, manufacturing, media, retail, and real estate. Mergent First Research includes 100 country profiles and regional industry reports for 29 industries in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America.

Incorporates D&B's private company database (formerly Hoover's) containing data on more than 20 million private and 6,000 public U.S. companies, 1.5 million Canadian private companies and 70 million international private companies. The interface enables users to create lists of companies by industry, by geographic region and by other criteria. Mergent Intellect includes the ability to link a company to its parent and subsidiary companies. Mergent Intellect covers industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, and the ability to access industry profiles. The Job Search component links U.S. and Canadian company information to civilian and military occupations. The Job Search, Veterans provides occupations by military branch including employment data and the ability to search specific occupations by location for companies that hire within that profession.

Provides access to competitive benchmarking data. Industry benchmarks are compiled from D&B's database of public and private companies, featuring 14 key business ratios (users choose a one-year or three-year set of ratios) for public and private companies in 800 lines of business.