Mergent

Problem: Reported "Did we redo our subscription to Mergents because it used to be much better? We could get in to only international companies and I couldn’t even access it. Of course it was a busy time of the day. So how many ports do we have please?" Do we have access to US companies as well? TB to make certain all the content allowed by our subscription has been turned on.

Assigned to: TB 3/13/08

Resolution: Resolved 4/2/08
TB sent email to Auraria Ref List.
"Within the last year we reactivated our subscription to Mergent Online.
Many of you may recall that we had a subscription to Mergent's several years ago, but cancelled it in favor of Hoover's Online. Our reactivated subscription is very different from our old one however, and that has evidently caused some confusion at the Ref Desk and with our faculty and students.
Our old subscription to Mergent's gave us U.S. company information, but our new one DOES NOT! Only foreign companies are included in the new Mergent subscription , as well as information on national and international industries (but not companies). We made this arrangement with Mergent for a number of reasons:
1. We needed an additional source of international and foreign company information and industry information, and Mergent was a good and relatively inexpensive way to get it!
2. We had the option to get all of the above information plus the U.S.
company information, but that would have driven the subscription price up a lot more than we could afford.
3. We already have a lot of sources for U.S. company information, so we didn't need that kind of information from Mergents. These sources
include:
a. Lexis Nexis
b. Business Source Premier
c. Compustat (aka Research Insight)
d. Disclosure Reports
e. Hoover's Online
To help alleviate the confusion surrounding what we can and can't get from Mergent's, I will reword the blurb for this database on the ADI page. At present it reads in this way:
"Mergent Online - International and Industrial Data (Mergent) A suite of information resources that enables in-depth business and financial research on an international basis. The information resources included therein are: international company data, international company archives, and international annual reports, as well as industry reports for North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America."
If you have any questions about this, please let me know.
Tom"