Does anyone know where you can go to access the public records for a software company?..I''d like to do some research, and I don''t necessarily trust their website to be unbiased.. "Like all good things, it starts with a monkey.."

Try the public companies, they have all information in a report.
When you are a possible interested investor in there company you can ask for a report.

And you seriously think that report wouldn''t be biased ?
It would be aimed to look ''amazing'' and to draw the person into investing into the company.

http://www.hoovers.com is probably one of the best known suppliers of such information. However you still need to take into account the following.

1. The info they publish is based on a companies past (reported) performance. As they say in financial circles "past performance is no guarantee of future performance".
2. Any predictions they make are based on the briefings provided to them by...... yep, the publishers themselves. In other words it is based on info supplied by companies who most times fail to make a profit. Not necessarily the most reliable of sources.

In fact the same goes for the various market reports that project future trends. All they actually do is talk to the CEOs who can''t project the future of their own company six months ahead and get them to make 5 year projections for the whole industry. Then they just do low, medium and high versions of these projections and that is their report. All in all not actually of much use at all.


Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

That''s one of the things I don''t like about this industry, nobody''s really been around long enough to develop a REAL reputation(with the exception of say, Sony, IBM, MS, etc.), and the market changes so much it''s hard to guage future performance based on just a few years of company history..

I know there are ways to get specs on other companies and services, but I can''t seem to find ANYPLACE that has solid unbiased info on independent software development companies..

Before I get involved with anyone I want to hear from people that have already dealt with them in some capacity and can give me their personal account of the experience..

If I''m about to deal with ANY company, I''d like to hear testimonials from other developers that have had prior experiences with them rather than trust the watered down propaganda most companies post on their sites..

Maybe we could start something on gamedev , but it''s probably not too important for most people here(I would assume)..

Either way, I think I''ll put something in the suggestions forum later..


"Like all good things, it starts with a monkey.."

monkeyman:
If I''m about to deal with ANY company, I''d like to hear testimonials from other developers that have had prior experiences with them rather than trust the watered down propaganda most companies post on their sites..

Just ask the company for references and then follow up on them. And if you feel extra resourceful, after you talk to their references, ask those references for *additional* references about that company that they may know.


DavidRM
Samu Games

Publicly traded companies have to file a large amount of information that is open to the public.

Interplay, for example, filed a report that contained details about their licensing deal for the Matrix which outlined their five million dollar advance, repayment schedule and interest on any outstanding payments. Interestingly, it also listed different features that will be exclusive to the XBOX version, budget requirements for xbox development and so on.

Just go to any solid financial planning firm and tell them you might be interested in investing in XXX company and ask them for a report. (assuming again, that XXX company is publicly traded)