I often see the following terminology misused in the press. For the Investigator, these terms have very specific meanings. The Investigator must also recognise that most laymen will misuse these terms.
A parent company controls separately incorporated firms. The controlled company is a subsidiary. A subsidiary has a parent when the controlling firm owns more than 50% of its shares.
Divisions are business names owned by a corporation. A division specialises in some product or service offered by the company that owns the business name. A corporation using a registered business name is doing business as that name, hence the term DBA (Doing Business As).
An affiliate is a corporation which is owned by more that one entity which do not individually own more that 50% each.
…and don’t forget about the very useful but expensive directory of corporate affiliations which tracks all of this stuff!
http://www.corporateaffiliations.com/
Dave, I see you’ve been reading ahead.
Next week I will do an article on getting the most out of D&B Who Owns Whom and Corporate Affiliations. There is a better source than either of these for Canadian companies.