Corporate Family Trees

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.

2 Responses to “Corporate Family Trees”


  1. 1 dave

    …and don’t forget about the very useful but expensive directory of corporate affiliations which tracks all of this stuff!
    http://www.corporateaffiliations.com/

  2. 2 Richard McEachin

    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.

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