# Who owns Whom

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-whom/203088>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 22, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-whom/203088 "2003-09-22T14:18:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jvwert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9e8a1a/32.png) [@jvwert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jvwert)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-whom/203088/1 "2003-09-22T14:18:09Z")

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Is there a website wherein I can keep up to date on Who owns Whom. For  
example, I have watched some of my old standby companies get swallowed  
up by others, and am sometimes aware of the transactions. But, more  
often, I get surprises. For example, Kraft swallowed Nabisco, and I  
have heard that Kraft was recently swallowed by the newly created “clean  
name” corporation that used to make cigarettes.(Phillip Morris).

```
  I would like to have a source of information that I can "click on" and
  get the latest of such transactions as well as learning what happened to
  some of the old line leaders of their fields - such as General RAdio /
  Kueffel &Esser (slide rules and drawing instruments) / Disston (tools), etc.

  Another example - Campbell Soup - what do they own now besides such as
  Godiva Chocolates - Pepperage Farms, etc.

  Is there such a "clearing house" for such information?
```

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**Author:** ![NFlanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@NFlanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NFlanders)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-whom/203088/2 "2003-09-22T14:37:51Z")

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[Hoover’s](http://www.hoovers.com) is a good website for corporate information but they recently went subscription. As for knowing about new transactions, try reading the business section of the newspaper. It’s not like these things are secret; they are big news when they happen.  
Campbell’s also owns brands Pace, V-8 and Franco-American.

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**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-whom/203088/3 "2003-09-22T15:21:52Z")

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As far as I’m aware there’s no such central clearing house for this information. However there are various websites that specialise in this kind of thing.

[Mergermarket](http://www.mergermarket.com) and [dealReporter](http://www.dealreporter.com) both specialise in reporting (mergermarket) and tracking (dealreporter) mergers and acquisitions. Subscriptions are not cheap though - expect to pay numerous thousands of pounds for one-year of single-user access. Their archives can be searched for past activity. (Just for the record: I know of these sites because I developed their back-end systems, but I’m no longer associated with MergerMarket Ltd or their subsidiaries. Good sites though. Fine, fine workmanship.)

I don’t know offhand of anywhere you can do a search and find out who a company is owned by.