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I am interested in finding information about a competitor and I am curious if anyone knows of any good resources for this type of thing.

Information I'd like to know:

  • How much money they made last year
  • How many employees they have

Is this type of information typically available to the public? If so, where can I find it?

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There is not enough information here to answer your question. Where is your competitor located? What business structure does your competitor have? – Gary E♦ Sep 11 '11 at 21:24
You could just go to their CEO and announce "You're one of my competitors and I'd like to know about your company so that I can insert devious motive here. How much money did you make last year and how many employees do you have?" You never know; they might tell you! ;-) – Chris Morgan Sep 12 '11 at 4:21

2 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

For a publicly traded company this information is often available in their regulatory reporting documents. In the United States this is their required SEC filings.

This information is very difficult to get for a private company. For a private company you will need to be a great detective. As such you will be souraging multiple sources of information and putting the picture together from a variety of puzzle pieces. These will include:

  • Their website
  • Press releases
  • News reports
  • Relative information based on other competitors for whom you have this information
  • Social media profiles
  • LinkedIn
  • Parking spots at their offices
  • Ex-employees looking for work
  • Drunken conversations overheard at the Country Club

Have fun being a sluth-- and make sure that you are only spending the time that you really need to in order to stay focused on growing your company.

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up vote 1 down vote

If the information you seek isn't publicly available, consider applying for a job with them. Not entirely ethical perhaps, but HR is likely to share a great deal of information.

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