Demystifying Corporate Ownership: Three Essential Tips for Researching Conglomerates

Distinguishing between brand identity and corporate identity can be challenging, as the average retail consumer may not be aware of (or interested in) the corporate ownership of products they use every day, but understanding corporate ownership is crucial for competitive intelligence researchers.

Through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), strategic purchases of supply chains, or efforts to dominate a specific category, a parent company's brand portfolio can become intricate and hard to trace. This complexity poses a significant challenge for researchers attempting to link brands to their parent corporations or for local sales managers trying to connect with their global C-suite leaders.

Academic researchers, for example, might struggle to identify potential conflicts of interest if a funding source has financial stakes across various industries. Similarly, small- or mid-sized competitors need to evaluate their supply chain interactions to avoid inadvertently supporting a major rival that controls significant portions of the industry. And with so many consumers today focused on supporting companies who prioritize ESG, it’s imperative researchers of any organization make sure they’re identifying brands that fall under ESG-focused companies.

Navigating the intricate web of corporate ownership and affiliations is complex, we’re here to offer guidance in understanding the best strategies through three essential tips.

Track corporate ownership through intelligence research

When brands come under new ownership, this often generates at least some level of media coverage. Even smaller M&A activity usually makes it into local business news, while those involving larger companies typically receive extensive coverage across local, national, and industry-specific outlets.

Identifying the parent company of a product or organization often requires looking at historical news and newspaper archives, rather than just relying on the current news cycle. A company may have acquired a brand years ago, and while the brand continues to operate unchanged, its current ownership might not be immediately evident in recent reports through traditional competitive intelligence research tools.

Take Duracell, the global battery manufacturer headquartered in the United States and Switzerland, as an example. Despite being a well-known brand since the 1920s, its ownership has changed hands multiple times, making it challenging to trace solely through contemporary reporting. Currently, Duracell is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., a commonly known conglomerate with diverse holdings spanning industries including insurance, jewelry, building materials, food condiments, athletic shoes, and media outlets. While initial reports on Berkshire Hathaway's acquisition of Duracell provide detailed insights, more recent industry-specific publications may not highlight this ownership connection and be missed when a researcher is conducting a company ownership analysis.

Thus, understanding corporate ownership often involves delving into past media reports to piece together the history and affiliations that aren't always apparent in current news. But where is someone seeking this information to look? Most busy business intelligence professionals or researchers don’t have the time to dig through decades of media articles that they may or may not even know exist.

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Stay aware of the illusion of competition

Consider this example: global beverage giant Coca-Cola has strategically filled store shelves with a wide array of drink brands, creating an illusion of competition. While consumers may know about the variety of sodas owned by the corporate company, they might still incorrectly perceive a rivalry between many popular water brands such as Dasani, smartwater, and vitaminwater, unaware they all originate from this single parent company.

Many consumers would be surprised that this business practice of owning seemingly competing products within the same category is quite common. For example, Unilever, a multinational company, owns multiple ice cream brands including Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Cornetto, and Wall’s. Despite their distinct brand identities, these products all contribute to Unilever's market dominance. Similarly, Unilever's portfolio spans various personal care products, with multiple brands offering shampoos, deodorants, and skincare products, giving consumers an "illusion of choice."

For researchers, the key challenge lies in sourcing high-quality materials that go beyond brand labels and provide substantive data on corporate ownership and market strategies.

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Use the right intelligence tools to uncover corporate ownership

Researching corporate ownership can feel akin to tracing a complex genealogy, with affiliations branching out like a family tree. A single brand might be owned by a parent company, which in turn is controlled by another entity, and so forth, extending through many "generations" of ownership. This complexity increases when considering partially owned companies, sister companies, and joint partnerships. To avoid getting lost in the chaos, it's essential to look beyond consumer-facing information and delve into industry filings and direct sources. But where to begin?

The necessary information is out there, but it can be challenging to locate. Public financial records, regulatory disclosures, press releases, and investor reports contain data that, when analyzed collectively, reveal corporate affiliations. Additionally, examining executive and board memberships can offer clues, as unified operations often share key personnel in roles such as CEO or chairperson.

This is where Nexis+ AI™ becomes invaluable. By leveraging advanced competitive intelligence tools and generative artificial intelligence (AI), Nexis+ AI allows you to delve deep into trusted datasets, uncovering the intricate web of corporate affiliations that shape market dynamics 

Our AI-powered research platform allows researchers to quickly extract insights from extensive reports, news articles, and legal documents, keeping all your findings and sources easily organized across a global of corporate data. By streamlining your research process, you’re able to reduce the manual effort involved in piecing together corporate genealogies. Nexis+ AI helps you navigate the complexities of corporate ownership, ensuring you have the right information needed to make informed decisions.