Dow Jones Financial Information Services, which provides information for the financial, corporate and emerging markets, this month launched Private Equity Source, a database that tracks all buyout and growth transactions in the U.S. and Europe, including the investment firms and companies involved in those transactions.
Private Equity Source is geared toward private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks and service providers to complement their research on key investment sectors, deal partners and potential deals through information on today's buyout industry. The database will launch with three years of deal data, covering about 7,700 private equity-backed companies and 1,800 investment firms managing more than $1.56 trillion in assets.
The new database boasts several key features, including profiles that contain complete snapshots of private equity firms and portfolio companies (with investment histories, product overviews and key executives). It also contains contact information for senior personal at these organizations as well as information about which banks, accounting firms, law firms and other service providers have been involved in similar deals.
Private Equity Source also offers analytic tools that can help the user compare target companies to similar deals already closed in a particular sector.
Users can also pinpoint the exact information they need through advanced searches. Search queries can contain such criteria as types of deals (buyouts, M&A, IPO), deal size, time period and company/firms involved. Searches can then be saved, downloaded and shared.
This seems like a very comprehensive database that will provide users with the various and complex pieces of data they need to accomplish their goals. As important as the presence of good data is, of course, the ability to comb through that data to find the most relevant and usable information is just as vital. With the search capabilities Dow Jones has launched with this database, it truly looks like the company has all of its bases covered.