Foster Business Library


Company Lists


Question:     Where would I find lists of companies in particular industries?     In the Seattle area?
Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.
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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • Hoovers Online:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Hoovers Online offers information on over 40,000 public and private companies worldwide, with links to company homepages and annual reports, charts, company capsule, competitors, divisions, earnings, financials, Fortune and Forbes rankings, history, industry information, insider trading, mission statements, news links, press releases, officers, patents, products, SEC filings, splits, subsidiaries, etc.

  • Kompass:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Directory information for 1.6 million companies in 72 countries, with indexes for company products and services, containing 23 million product and service references, and 500,000 trademarks and brand names. Companies may be located via the product or service they offer as well as by country (but not by state).

  • Mergent Online:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases. Online access to the print edition of the Mergent Manuals, with extensive information on 11,000 U.S. and 17,000 international companies, including financials, stock, properties, joint ventures, annual reports, subsidiaries, S.E.C. filings, etc. For search tips, see About Mergent Online.

  • ReferenceUSA:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Directory information for 12 million companies in the U.S.  Companies can be searched for by name, business activity, size and location. With this database, for instance, you can locate all businesses, public or private, in a city, a county, several counties, an area code, a zip code, etc.

  • Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases. Full text for the following S&P publications:   Bond Guide; Corporation Records; Dividend Record; Earnings Guide; Industry Surveys; Mutual Fund Reports; The Outlook; Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives; Security Dealers of North America; Stock Guide; and Stock Reports.

    Web Resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

  • Yahoo! Finance Industry Center:   This site is excellent for company and investment information as well as a good source for financial ratio comparisons with industry, sector and S&P 500. In the Industry Center, click on an industry and then (in the upper left), on Company List.

  • Industry Profiles (Wetfeet.Com):   This job hunting site offers profiles for 32 industries, with an industry overview, trends, industry organization, job prospects, what's great and what's to hate in the industry, from the viewpoint of a jobseeker, major companies in the industry, and examples of job descriptions and tips on how to get hired in the industry. There are also links to industry associations and a profile of an individual working in the industry. The amount of industry information makes up for annoying popups.

  • Seattle Times Northwest 100:   Each year, the Seattle Times pulls together what it considers the top 100 public companies in the Pacific Northwest, with profiles of each company and listings of companies by industry. Company profiles include year of founding, website, number of employees, SIC description, ticker symbol and exchange, CEO name, equity and debt data, stock data, profit, sales and asset data, growth in employment and sales per employee. A spreadsheet feature enables users to compare companies.

  • WSA:   This organization (formerly known as the Washington Software Alliance) provides access to information about the Washington state software industry. The site includes a career section but no company profiles; for company profiles, go to the WSA industry directory (see below). For a list of member companies in this industry, in this state, click here.

  • Washington Biotechnology & Medical Technology Online:   This website provides access to a wealth of information about the Washington state biotech industry, with a section on career resources, with Job Listings. The site also includes an extensive Industry Directory with profiles of companies in this industry.

  • Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Member Directory:   This site provides lists of Seattle-area companies arranged by industry, with very brief information about the company and a link to their homepage. See their Membership Directory.

  • Other company lists:   Many publications produce lists of companies; here is a selection:

    Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

    The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

  • Seattle metro yellow pages.
    An excellent and easy to use source for local business information, this directory is also a link to resources often more valuable than web and print resources: people working in business and industry.
    Foster Business Library Reference Desk.

  • D&B million dollar directory.
    Annual five volume listing of the 160,000 largest U.S. companies (including 136,000 private companies), including companies with more than 180 employees or over $9 million in annual sales. Company listings may include company name and address, phone number, subsidiary relationships, date founded, bank and accounting firm, annual sales and number of employees, SIC code, type of business, one or more contact names and whether the company is public or private. Volumes one to three include the companies, arranged alphabetically by company name; volume four is an index to companies by industry and SIC code, arranged by state and within state, by city; volume five is an index by state; within state, by city; within city, by company name.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC102 .D8 (Annual)

  • Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
    This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74. (Quarterly)

  • Puget Sound major employers directory pinpointer.
    Published by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, this unique reference work to companies in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties covers almost 1,900 major employers in the region (employers with more than 100 employees), pinpointing them by map location and providing company addresses, number of employees, telephone numbers, principal products or services, and four names of contact persons. There is also an SIC code index.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC107 .W22 .P864 2001/2003.

  • Puget Sound Business Journal book of lists.
    This annual publication is an invaluable source of information about public and private companies in the Puget Sound area, culled from lists that appeared weekly in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Besides lists of the largest and fastest growing public and private companies in the area, this reference work includes commercial real estate deals, banks and securities firms, contractors, education and employment, health care, title companies, marketing firms, nonprofits, professional services, executive compensation, real estate, retailers, software developers, biotech and travel and recreation. There is an index to companies and topics in the back of this volume.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC108 .S77 .P83 (Annual)

  • WSA industry directory.
    The annual directory of the WSA (formerly known as the Washington Software Alliance) provides profiles of its member companies (information not available on its website).
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9996.63 .U63 .W28.

  • WBBA member directory.
    The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association publishes an annual directory of its industry members, with brief profiles for about 240 area biotech firms.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9999 .B443 .U638.

  • Principal international businesses.
    This annual directory, published by Dun & Bradstreet, includes the world's leading 50,000 companies, arranged alphabetically by country; within country, firms are arranged alphabetically by company name. Company profiles are brief but include ownership information, sales and employee numbers, SIC code, type of business and a contact name (often the company president). The volume includes a yellow page index by SIC code; within SIC code, companies are arranged alphabetically by country. The blue pages in this volume provide an alphabetic index by company name.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF54 .U5 .P74.

  • Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Membership and Business Directory.
    While some of this information is available at the Chamber's website, this print edition is sometimes easier to use, with information about the local business situation and major companies in the area as well as profiles of local successful organizations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF296 .S4 2003.

  • Washington state international trade directory.
    This annual directory is the best source for information about Washington state companies engaged in international trade. There are company profiles for 3,000 import and export firms, with information about number of employees, gross sales, SIC code, a business description and a list of the countries with which the firm deals. There are also indexes by product and by country.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5065 .W2 .W37 (Annual)

  • Seattle metro business directory.
    This large annual two-volume directory lists every business in the Seattle metropolitan area. Volume one is an A to Z listing of busineses; volume two provides indexes by industry, by key individual, etc. The amount of information for each of the 80,000 businesses is brief but often the information provided is the only information available. The publisher of this directory is the same as the provider of the online business database Reference USA.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5068 .S6 .C6 1999.

  • LexisNexis corporate affiliations: who owns whom.
    This set of eight volumes covers over fifty thousand U.S. and international companies and their subsidiaries, with a master index in volumes one and two; U.S. public companies in volumes three and four; U.S. private companies in volumes five and six; and international public and private companies in volumes seven and eight.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4057 .A219 2005.

  • Thomas register of manufacturers.
    This huge green annual multi-volume set covers the universe of manufacturing products and services in the United States and Canada, in three sections: products and services, arranged alphabetically by product or service (with an index to products and to trademarks); profiles of the manufacturing companies, arranged alphabetically by company name; and product catalogs from many of the companies in the register.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: T12 .T62. 2005.
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  • Washington manufacturers directory.
    This annual volume profiles over 8,000 Washington state manufacturers and suppliers, in six sections: a buyers guide listing companies by product or industrial service; an SIC code index; an alphabetical index by company name; a parent company index; a geographic index by city; and a county breakdown. Company profiles may include company name, subsidiary information, mailing address, phone (both local and national), fax, web address, the names of senior officers, the SIC code, number of employees and annual sales estimate, whether the company is public or private, parent company, and total employment.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: T12 .W35 (Annual) Foster Business Library Articles:

      The Foster Business Library subscribes to 800 business journals, some of which publish annual lists of companies in a variety of categories. As examples of such lists, see:

      • Business Week
        Business Week 50:   Each March
        Business Week Information Technology 100:   Each November

      • Forbes Magazine
        Forbes 500s Annual Directory Issue:   Each April or May
        Forbes Platinum 400:   Each January
        Forbes 200 Best Small Companies:   Each November

      • Fortune Magazine
        America's Fastest Growing Companies: The Top 100:   Each September
        Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 Issue:   Each April or May
        Fortune Global 500 Issue:   Each July or August

      • Inc Magazine
        Inc. 500:   Each October

      • Industry Week
        Industry Week 1000:   Each June
        Industry Week's 100 Best-Managed Companies:   Each August

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    Try searches in this database such as SUB(Companies) and SUB(Polls & Surveys), SUB(Companies) and SUB(Ratings & Rankings), and SUB(Companies) and SUB(Statistical Data).

    Try also limiting these searches by adding places names, such as Seattle, Bellevue, King County, etc.

    Help:

    3 September 2003; updated 12 June 2007.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu, 206-543-4360.