Knowing the next moves of the major players in your market would be invaluable in planning your own. There are all kinds of clues: the kind of people they are hiring; the patents they are registering; and so on. The problem is that monitoring all these clues, certainly for more than one company, would be a full time job.
Company Sleuth provides a very effective answer. It does the monitoring for you. In fact, the range of information it provides, and its level of service, are quite amazing, and they are free. A few simple clicks give you a legal, inside look at virtually any publicly traded US company. The service can be personalized. You select up to ten publicly traded companies, and Company Sleuth will stakeout and track all of them for you. You can change the companies anytime.
Company Sleuth sends you a daily e-mail containing free, legal inside information on the business activities, financial moves, Internet dealings, and legal actions of the companies you choose, from sources including: new patents; stock quotes; job postings; SEC filings; analyst ratings; press releases; earnings estimates; new trademarks; business news; discussion group postings; insider trades; short interest. Company Sleuth is the only source where you will find all this information in one place.
Warning
Company Sleuth uncovers a lot of clues as it conducts its stakeouts. Some of these clues may be "pure gold", and provide you with genuine insights into a company's operations. Others may be "fools gold" and lead to a dead-end. Company Sleuth tells its users point blank: " It is impossible to determine the validity of every piece of information – that's your job. We provide you with the clues – you draw the conclusions".
How to analyze the clues
The following is a summary of just seven of the clues that Company Sleuth provides, and how to analyze them to gain valuable business intelligence about the companies that interest you:
- Patents: Company Sleuth frequently checks with the US Patent Office to see when new patent applications are approved. Patents can be a strong indication of what new technologies or products a company may be developing, or what new markets they may be looking to enter in the near future.
- Trademarks: Company Sleuth provides reports on newly registered trademarks for your stakeout companies. Trademarks can be evidence of the branding activities or product development of a company. They may also indicate a company's intentions of getting into a new market or industry.
- Domains: Newly registered Internet domains are tracked and reported by Company Sleuth. Many times, new domain names can point to the Internet tactics and plans of a company. By having access to these, you can often infer what general plans a company has for its on-line business strategy.
- Jobs: Company Sleuth tracks and reports on current job postings. This can indicate the direction or plans of a company, depending on the amount of hiring, level of positions for which people are being sought, and departments where the positions are located.
- Insider trades: Company Sleuth tracks when company insiders, like presidents and directors, file to buy and sell stock in their own companies. This can indicate the degree of confidence in the company’s future and its long and short term potential. But be careful here – insider trading can also indicate that the director simply needs money for a new house, or yacht, or for a vacation.
- Federal litigation: This module provides information on civil, class action,
and anti-trust lawsuits a company is involved in. These lawsuits can indicate
the activities or the business practices of a company and how the government
or market is reacting to them. These can also be a good gauge of any
difficulties or problems a company may currently face that could affect its
business or financial state in the future.
Learn who’s tracking whom
When you register for Company Sleuth, it asks you to "enter your company’s ticker below." For fun, I entered Cisco’s ticker. Company Sleuth did not mind, and now I can learn which companies are using Company Sleuth to track Cisco. This is important, because it provides unique insights on Cisco’s competitors and on potential suitors.
Try it out
To give Company Sleuth a trial run, let it track and stakeout for you US publicly traded companies that have bought Israeli companies. I went to the Arena and found a table of such US companies. I chose my companies from the list. Almost immediately, Company Sleuth provided me with business intelligence clues as promised.
Next week, I will give some specific examples of how to use Company Sleuth’s clues. Incidentally, the further guidance on EDGAR promised last week will be given at a later stage. EDGAR is of course one of Company Sleuth’s sources.
Note: Arena links open in current window. External links open in new window, to facilitate toggling.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on March 16, 1999