About D&B

We've come a long way since July 20, 1841 -- the day we set up shop as The Mercantile Agency in New York City and helped start a business information revolution. We've done a lot of growing in that time to stay on the leading edge of technology.

The rapid development of computing and communications technology in the post-war era has been central to the growth of D&B. During the past 50 years of D&B's history, increases in the speed and volume of cross-border communications have influenced our evolution from a provider of credit reports to a leader in the international information industry.

D&B has undergone a period of restructuring in recent years, designed to make D&B a smaller, more tightly focused company. A.C. Nielsen, Cognizant, Reuben H. Donnelley and Moody's Corporation were all spun off to allow each company to pursue focused strategies for its specific business. And in October 2000, D&B launched an ambitious new plan called the Blueprint for Growth -- a strategy designed to transform itself into a growth company with an important presence on the Web.

We're creating a whole new generation of products and services that give customers exciting opportunities to manage business information more efficiently. We are constantly expanding the size and improving the quality of our global database, which now covers more than 125 million businesses worldwide. And we're working hard to continuously improve the high-quality service that is our hallmark.

We're a company poised to meet the new century. But we will always have a fundamental legacy to define us, a legacy that ties us to our past and supports us as we venture into the next millennium.

D&B is the world's leading and longest-established business information company. For 166 years D&B has been providing business, credit, receivables and marketing information, starting in the US but today spanning 240 countries. Millions of executives around the world consider D&B's in-depth, dependable and up-to-date information as a vital support tool in making confident decisions that avoid risk and a sound basis for efficient and precise marketing.

D&B's extensive international network enables every businessperson in all parts of the world to enjoy reliable and accessible information, updated a million times a day, on more than 151 million companies.