Business Classes/Seminars Etc

Hi everyone,

Since December I have moved to a good position where I work. My title is Parent Research Specialist. What I do is research Parent Companies for advertiser, products, etc. Another task I have to perform is keeping track of Mergers & Aquisitions. I really would like to gain better knowledge in the area of M&A's.

This is the company I work for TNS Media Intelligence

Does anyone know of a class I could take regarding this subject?

I appreciate any direction you can give me. Does anyone here offer anything pertaining to this subject? I would rather support a member of this forum rather than strangers.

Thanks and Cheers,
Cathi

I am a professional librarian and have in the past done exactly what you are doing in some of my jobs, including business research..or shall we call it now competitive intelligence or business intelligence or environmental scanning. Work did include deep research in expensive databases and news media alerting services via ie: Lexis/Nexis, Factiva, etc. and other sources that report corporate mergers and acquisitions.

I also taught courses to lawyers and acccountants on corporate information and financial information research on parent and subsidiary companies, using different search methods and sources --some hidden behind the free Internet, some not electronic anywhere, some on legal sector, etc.

Thanks Orchid, we have those resources as well as Hoovers. They are not 100% for sure and sometimes am required to do more digging. Your right, there is information out there hidden behind the free internet. It's a matter of improving your searching skills.

With my limited understanding of Mergers & Aquisitions, I am finding myself stumped while reading about some recent M&A's with some companies out there. In other words, I have read articles and still would not be clear as to who the Parent and Subsidiaries are. I think if I understood the process better, I would be able to identify who the companies are with more speed and accuracy.

Another source I find useful is having the PR Newswire RSS feed on my home page. I check it constantly to see if there has been any M&A's.

Are you teaching now? Do you know of another resource I can tap into? I ask for classes specifically because I am required to take 2 classes this year. We have access to free classes online, but they do not offer a course specifically on this subject. They offer mostly Microsoft, different computer applications, customer service skills, etc... If I took a class outside and it pertained to my work, the company will reimburse me for it.

I bet you really enjoy what you do.

Cheers,
Cathi

In all honesty, textbooks, really good specialized stuff, is not online or if it is very difficult and too expensive to read online because the whole text is online...ie. 500-800 pages long with hypertext links all over the place. Creates fragmented understanding about mergers and acquisitions.

Research must be approached not only online, but many of the expensive texts that exist in your university library. If your university has a business faculty/business school, then it should have a significant library section or whole business library where there would be texts on U.S. and international mergers and acquisitions.

Research, if approached strategically needs to consider key databases ...and STILL whole world of print materials is current and easier to grasp more quickly, and sometimes only published in hard copy, in electronic form.

Searching the database of your university library from the comfort of your home.. before dropping by. If you paid an annual membership to use the university library, it is possible then you might be granted access to a wider range of fee-based/licensed research databases ..like a fee-paying student or faculty member would have just benefits.

Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of course has your official documents that track the completed filings for mergers...and demergers for publicly listed companies that trade in the U.S. Canada has SEDAR, a publicly accessible national database..which would include Canadian and U.S. firms that trade on the Canadian stock exchange, TSX.

I am aware that some Canadian librarians take several courses to be certified with the Canadian Securities Institute, learn about financial instruments, terminology, etc. TLere are exams. But it is to my understanding worthwhile for them, to conduct complex searches that require understanding the terminology to zero in on the right results.

Or perhaps your university business library offers a 1 hr. course how to do more effective research. Never hurts to ask..

If a public library has an extensive floor/whole department devoted to reference and research on business resources, they miught also offer some expertise to show you certain things.

Yes, being librarian is more than the glasses and hairbun (of which I don't sport)..it has been a great journey so far.. and technology just adds on top of what we need to remember and update our brains.