If you are doing company research and you want to find information about a public company, a good database to start with is EDGAR from the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All public companies have to file their annual reports as well as other types of reports with the SEC. These reports are freely available and contain financial information, executive compensation, subsidiaries of a corporation, major investors and legal proceedings. Some of the major reports are:

• 10K -- This is the annual report for a company. It contains financial information as well as executive compensation.

• 10Q -- This is the quarterly report for the company that also contains financial information, but on a quarterly basis rather than annually. It gives you an opportunity to see how the company is doing throughout the year rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year.

• 8K -- This is a report of unscheduled events or corporate changes deemed important to shareholders or the SEC such as acquisition/disposition of assets or bankruptcy or receivership.

• DEF 14A -- This form is the proxy statement which contains information regarding matters that are to be voted on by the security holders. This form contains information about the background, holdings and compensation of the company directors, officers and insiders.

EDGAR contains public company reports from 1994 to the present. The database can be searched using the company name, ticker symbol, or keywords.