FAQ: How is a company's Corporate Status defined?

Review these definitions to more fully understand the corporate status of a business you encounter, or when reading the EconoVue Corporate Linkage Map.

A glossary of additional business definitions can be found here.

Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Status Definitions:

• A branch is a secondary location of a business. It has no legal responsibility for its debts, even though bills may be paid from the branch location. It will have the same legal business name as its headquarters, although branches frequently operate under a different trade style. A branch may be located at the same address as the headquarters if it has a unique trade style and unique operations. In such cases, the branch will appear to be a duplicate of the headquarters record.
• A subsidiary is a corporation that is more than 50 percent owned by another corporation and will have a different legal business name from its parent company. A subsidiary must be either a single location, a headquarters, or a parent. A subsidiary may have branches and/or subsidiaries of its own.
• A parent is a corporation that owns more than 50 percent of another corporation. The parent company may also be a subsidiary of another corporation. If the parent also has branches / divisions, then it is also a headquarters. Parents can have both direct and indirect subsidiaries, indirect subsidiaries being those that have another company in between the subsidiary and the parent.
• A headquarters is business location that has branches or divisions reporting to it, and is legally responsible for those branches or divisions. If the headquarters is more than 50 percent owned by another corporation, it will also be a subsidiary. If it owns more than 50 percent of another corporation, then it is also a parent.