Foreign Global Companies

Printed Sources:

• International Directory of Company Histories, Ref HD2721 .D36-This multi-volume work provides detailed information on the development of the world's 4,550 largest and most influential companies.

• Principal International Businesses. Dun & Bradstreet International--Organized geographically. Located in Corporate Area. Covers 50,000 public and private companies from 145 countries.

Databases:

American databases will not contained detailed information for foreign companies. Foreign companines that trade on any of the US exchanges are required to to file an annual report (20F) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires foreign issuers to file reports disclosing their financial condition, results of operations and any other information that is of significance to investors.

• ABI/Inform Global R
• Lexis-Nexis Universe R -- Company Financial Information: SEC 20F. The 20-F file-- from 1991 through current contains the full-text of 20-Fs (excluding some exhibits) for all issuers registered in foreign countries whose securities trade on the New York or American stock exchanges.
• GlobalEDGE (Free Registration) -- globaledge.msu.edu/. Created by the Center for International Business Education and Research at Michigan State University (MSU-CIBER), GlobalEDGE™ is a knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities. For specific countries see: globalEDGE International Business Resource Desk http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/.
• www.Kompass.com -- a busines to business search engine--data on over 70 countries and two million companies.
• New Vibes -- libweb.uncc.edu/ref-bus/vibehome.htm. VIBES provides over 2,800 links to Internet sources of international business and economic information that are in English and available free of charge.

Business-affairs correspondents for countries may also be useful when researching foreign entities.

• usembassy.state.gov.

Foreign Stock Exchanges

• Stock Exchanges Worldwide a list of world's major stock exchanges and other exchange resources.

Foreign Patents

•  CIPO-Canadian Trade-marks Database http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/cipo/trademarks/search/tmSearch.do?language=eng -- The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), a Special Operating Agency (SOA) , coverage includes patents, trademarks, copyrights.
• Delphion Intellectual Property Online http://www.delphion.com/simple -- Offers a collection of European patent applications published by the European Patent Office. The collection has bibliographic text and full document images of applications for European patents issued from 1979 to present.
• European Patent Office (Esp@Cenet) http://ep.espacenet.com / -- Provides comprehensive coverage of the worldwide patents managed by the European Office. E sp@cenet is an entry-level, internet-based patent document search service offered free of charge. It provides basic search and retrieval functions on a range of patent and patent-related documents.