D&B’s Historical Global Archive

This service features access to D&B’s Global Archive which consists of historical business records from active and inactive international companies. There are 5 different files that make up the D&B Global Archive offering. Below are summaries of the 5 files included in this user guide. 

• WorldBase U.S. Unlinked: 2012 – Present
  These files consist of U.S. based business records that do not have ownership relations that link them together in a family tree structure.
• WorldBase Global Unlinked: 2009 – Present
  These files consist of non-U.S. based business records that do not have ownership relations that link them together in a family tree structure.
• WorldBase Global Linkage: 2009 – Present
  These files consist of international business records that contain ownership relationships that link them together in a family tree structure. These files also contain traditional corporate linkage, which represents ownership greater than 50% and can exist for commercial entities, governments and non-profit organizations regardless of size. Linkage applies to active status records only, out of business records are not linked.
• WorldBase Business: 2018 – Present
  These files consist of additional company names and location information for global business records, such as Former Business Name and National Ids.
• WorldBase Delete: 2012 – Present
  These files consist of records that have been deleted from the D&B WorldBase database. It provides insight as to why the DUN’s number was removed.

To request access, kindly use the provided Library Mediated Accounts Request Form. Please note that access to D&B Historical data is restricted solely for the purpose of personal academic research.

Supplementary documents: Product Brochure | File Layout | Data size: about 39 Terabytes in total

Sample Data: D&B NETS WorldBase North America 

Once you have been granted access to the data, you can download it using one of two available options:

• Downloading from Globus
• Downloading from Research Workspace  project_name: db_nets | Instructions for mounting your drive.

Note: 

1. Data is available in compressed CSV format as zipped files (.gz). The size of each file can be found in the Data Summary
2. Data can be downloaded either from the Research Workspace or Globus. However, accessing data files in the cloud (without downloading) is only possible through the Research Workspace.
3. Important: The individual data file is large and may not be accessible directly by Microsoft Excel. Please consult the Sample Data for a quick overview, and utilize a suitable program. Python, R, to access the raw data.