Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet traces its history back to July 20, 1841, with the formation of The Mercantile Agency in New York City by Lewis Tappan, later called R.G. Dun & Company.[7] Recognizing the need for a centralized credit reporting system, Tappan formed the company to create a network of correspondents who would provide reliable, objective credit information to subscribers.[8] As an advocate for civil rights, Tappan used his abolitionist connections to expand and update the company's credit information.[9]

In spite of accusations of invading personal privacy, by 1844 the Mercantile Agency had over 280 clients. The agency continued to expand, allowing offices to open in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. By 1849, Tappan retired, allowing Benjamin Douglass to take over the booming business.[10]

In 1859, Douglass transferred the company to Robert Graham Dun, who immediately changed the firm's name to R.G. Dun & Company.[11] Over the next 40 years, Graham Dun continued to expand the business across international boundaries.

In 1933, Dun merged with competitor John M. Bradstreet to form today's Dun & Bradstreet.[12] The merger was engineered by Dun's CEO, Arthur Whiteside.[13] Whiteside's successor, J. Wilson Newman, worked to increase Dun's range of products and services and expanded dramatically during the 1960s by engineering ways to apply new technologies to evolving operations.[13]

The Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (D&B D-U-N-S Number) was invented in 1963.[14][15]

In 1996, the company tri-vested, creating three entities: D&B Companies, Nielsen, and the Cognizant Corporation.[16] Cognizant Corporation included Nielsen TV Ratings, Gartner Group, Clarke-O'Neill, Erisco, and several other lesser known entities. In 1999, Cognizant Corporation spun off Nielsen TV Ratings and shortly thereafter divested all its holdings, emerging as IMS Health. IMS Health continued to hold its prize incubator company that is today known as Cognizant Corporation. Moody's, a credit reporting agency, was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in 1962. In 1986, Dun & Bradstreet acquired the education data company Market Data Retrieval (MDR).[17][18][19][20]

During 2001, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Harris InfoSource International, Inc, a data company. In February 2003, the company acquired Hoover's.[21]

On February 5, 2003, Dun & Bradstreet restated prior period results to correct timing errors in the recognition of some of the revenue associated with 14 of the Company's 200+ products, after a review of its revenue recognition from 1997 through 2002.[22][23] In August 2010, Dun & Bradstreet spun off and sold its credit monitoring and management business to a newly formed company, Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. In 2007, Dun & Bradstreet acquired AllBusiness.com and sold the company in 2012.[24]

In October 2013, Bob Carrigan became the CEO of Dun & Bradstreet.

On January 5, 2015, Dun & Bradstreet acquired the data management firm NetProspex.[25] In April 2015, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. and announced the formation of a new division, Dun & Bradstreet Emerging Business. In January 2017, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Avention, the maker of OneSource solutions.[26]

On August 8, 2018, Dun & Bradstreet announced Thomas J. Manning, who had served as the company's interim CEO, as the new Chief Executive Officer, and that the company had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor group led by CC Capital, Cannae Holdings, and Thomas H. Lee Partners.[27]

On February 8, 2019, the investor group completed the acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet and it became a privately held company. Its former ticker symbol, DNB, was retired.[28]

On July 1, 2020, Dun & Bradstreet re-listed shares on the New York Stock Exchange, once again trading under the ticker symbol DNB.[29]