Resources to Find Lists & Profiles

of Companies In General & by Industry

http://finance.google.com/finance - Google Finance - Lists of companies by sector with links to more in depth profiles, analyses, etc.

http://www.hoovers.com - Hoovers - industry, company, and individual profiles at a high level available free of charge; more detailed reports can be purchased for between $29 and $129.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/company/overview/overview.asp - Business Week Company Insight Center - Search over 42,000 public and 322,000 private companies worldwide

http://www.zoominfo.com - ZoomInfo - business information search engine, with profiles on more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies - delivers organized information on industries, companies, people, products, services and jobs.  Searches for individuals not in top corporate positions requires a $99/month subscription. 

http://www.thomasnet.com/ - ThomasNet - Profiles on Manufacturing Industries and Companies

http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml - SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR) - all SEC filings by public companies quoted in the United States, including 10-K's and 10-Q's, among other

http://www.corporateinformation.com/ - Corporate Information - Information on world securities markets including Company Profiles from 53 countries. Free trial availalbe, after which payment is required for access.

http://www.edgar-online.com - Edgar-Online - http://www.edgar-online.com/company/about.aspx - Most information is only available via subscription; prices are steep; check your public and/or buisness library first to see if they have access.

http://www.corporateinformatino.com - CorporateInformation.com - produces company research reports on over 31,000 companies from over 55 countries.  Anything beyond basic information requires subscription.  Prices for 6-month access for students range from $100 for Global Basic Service (access to The Six Fundamental Reports:  Company Profile, Comparative Business Analysis, Summary Analysis, Sales Analysis, Price Analysis, and Earnings & Dividends Analysis) to $200 for access to a wide variety of reports (Professional Package:  the Six Fundamental, Company Financial Reports, Financial Ratio Reports, Wright Quality Analysis Reports.  For private individuals, a personal subscription ranges from $350 per year for Global Basic Service to $595 for the Professoinal Package.
 

http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/sfplonline/dbcategories.htm - The following databases are accessible free of charge for library card holders through the San Francisco Public Library. Contact your own local public library to check on availability.

Mergent Online - excellent tool for searching for a set of public companies in a given industry in a given country.  Data includes company details, financials, SEC filings, recent news headlines, annual reports, tear sheets, and industry reports. 

D&B's Million Dollar Databases - Brief overviews of public companies, including sales, number of employees, lines of business, SIC and NAIC codes, company URL, names of executives, etc. 

Kompass - Brief profiles for 1.9 million companies in 70 countries.  Profiles include general information, names of executives, and products and services.

Reference USA - This directory is accessible free of charge through the San Francisco Public Library for library card holders. Contact your own local public library to check on availability. It catalogues over 12,000,000 businesses across the United States and you can search by industry, country, city, area code, number of employees, and a variety of other criteria.

When searching in Reference USA by industry or type of business, it is best to search by NAICS code (North American Industry Classification System). For a complete and relatively user-friendly list of NAICS codes, visit http://www.census.gov/epcd/naics02/naicod02.htm#N31 .

 

If you decide that you want to search Reference USA by SIC code (Standard Industrial Classification) - which I don't recommend as it is rather cumbersome, a list of SIC codes can be found at http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sic_manual.html.

SF Bay Area-Specific

http://sfisonline.com/chron200/ - The Chronicle 200 - The top 200 Bay Area Companies Ranked by Revenue