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overview
holdings
landmarks
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landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. Context is provided
by the broader communications and media timeline.
beginnings
1828 Lewis Tappan publishes Journal of Commerce
in New York
1831 Journal of Commerce closes
1841 establishes Mercantile Agency in New York
1848 John Beardsley sues Mercantile Agency for slander
in landmark credit reference litigation lasting 23 years
1849 Tappan turns Agency over to Benjamin Douglass
1849 John M Bradstreet Company founded in Cincinnati,
Ohio
1851 Bradstreet promotes use of credit ratings through
first book of commercial ratings
1857 Mercantile Agency establishes offices in Montreal
and London
1859 RG Dun & Company established when Douglass turns
over Agency to brother-in-law Robert Graham Dun
1850 first edition of Dun's Book
1880 Richard R. Donnelley establishes The Chicago Directory
Company
1882 founds R.R. Donnelley & Sons
1886 son Reuben Donnelley introduces first telephone directory
in Chicago
1900 Frank Moody publishes Moody's Manual of Industrial
& Corporation Securities
1905 launches monthly Moody’s Magazine
1909 launches Railroad Investments newsletter service
1909 launches annual Moody’s Analyses of Investments
1914 Moody's Investors Service founded
1917 The Chicago Directory Company is dissolved, replaced
by Reuben H Donnelley Company (later Corporation)
1923 Arthur Charles Nielsen Sr establishes ACNielsen Company
1933 R.G. Dun and The Bradstreet Companies merge
1935 ACNielsen opens UK office
1939 ACNielsen opens office in Sweden
1942 Dun & Bradstreet acquires Credit Clearing House
credit reporting agency
1961 buys Reuben H Donnelly Corporation
1961 buys 10 trade magazines
1962 Dun & Bradstreet buys Moodys
1962 buys Official Airline Guide
1963 introduction of Data Universal Numbering System
1963 Management Science America (MSA) founded
1966 Dun & Bradstreet acquires survey specialist Fantus
Company
1971 Harris InfoSource founded as a US state database
directory provider
1971 Dun & Bradstreet buys Funk & Wagnalls from
Readers Digest
1971 buys Whitney's Corinthian
Broadcasting (five CBS tv affiliates)
1978 buys Technical Publishing
1979 buys National CSS computer services
1980 Donnelley forms Thomson Directories as joint venture
with Thomson
1983 Dun & Bradstreet buys McCormack & Dodge software
restructuring
1984 sells network-affiliated television stations in Houston,
Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto (California) Hampton/Norfolk
(Virginia) and Tulsa (Oklahoma) to Belo
for US$606m
1984 sells Funk & Wagnalls to MBO
1984 absorbs Schimmelpfeng GmbH in Austria
1984 buys ACNielsen
1986 buys Southern New Jersey Community Directories
1988 forms Cen-Don directory services partnership with
Centel Directory Company
1988 ACNielsen buys Logistics Data Systems
1988 Dun & Bradstreet pays US$1.8bn for Intercontinental
Medical Statistics (IMS), founded 1954
1988 sells Donnelly's Texas and Oklahoma directory operations
1988 sells Official Airlines Guide to Maxwell
for US$750m
1988 forms Venture One directories partnership with Southwestern
Bell
1989 buys Sales Technologies
1989 buys Management Science America
1990 forms Don-Tech directory partnership with Ameritech
1990 buys Management Science America (MSA) for US$333m
1990 sells Zytron, Petroleum Information and Neodata
1991 sells Donnelley Marketing (85-million-household consumer
information database)
1991 sells IMS communications arm
1991 sells Carol Wright Sales
1992 sells Datastream International and Information Associates
1993 buys majority stake in Gartner Group
1993 forms D&B HealthCare Information
1994 sells stake in Thomson Directory to US West
1994 buys Pilot Software for US$35m
1994 ACNielsen buys Survey Research Group (SRG) and establishes
joint venture with AMER World Research
1995 Dun & Bradstreet sells Interactive Data Corporation
unit to Pearson for $201m
1996 Dun & Bradstreet buys stake in B2B service provider
iMarket, Inc
1996 spins off IMS and Sales Technologies as Cognizant
1996 spins off ACNielsen, later acquired by VNU
1998 sells Financial Information Services (FIS) unit of
Moody's to Mergent
1998 spins off RH Donnelley
2000 spins off Moody's Investors Service, Inc
2001 buys remainder of iMarket for US$19m
2001 sells Receivable Management Services (RMS) operations
in US, Canada and Hong Kong to MBO
2001 sells European RMS operations to Intrum Justitia
B.V.
2001 sells Australia and New Zealand RMS operations to
MBO
2001 buys Harris InfoSource International
2001 changes name to D&B
2002 buys Data House S.p.A. from Seat Pagine Gialle S.p.A.
for US$22m
2002 buys Hoovers for US$117m
2004 Mergent acquired by Xinhua Finance
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