[Data-modeling] Company histories -- more fun than a barrel of dinosaurs mating

[Jamie Taylor]

This model works surprisingly well [nice work Jeff.]

I like the treatment of company divisions. The idea that companies can  
become divisions, can be the object of M/A, and can be co-typed as  
employers, strikes me as correct.  I think being able to attach assets  
(IP, brand/product, key-personnel, etc.) at this level and follow  
their flow is just right.

I was able to recreate my diagram of the Sperry usecase based solely  
from the data in the model, which suggests to me that this is good  
level of representation for these companies.

J

On Aug 1, 2008, at 12:09 AM, John Giannandrea wrote:

>
> I think this is very nice.  it captures the detail of corporate M&A at
> a level that people may in fact care about.
>
> Id suggest that 'companies merging' be named 'merged with' since the
> CVT doesnt display the current topic
> and that property name makes sense also from the 'product of merger'
> side.
>
> also 'involved_in_merger' could conceivably be on defunct_company
> rather than company if you always mark a merged company as defunct.
>
> -jg
>
> On Jul 30, 2008, at 4:44 PM, Jeff Prucher wrote:
>
>> After much banging of my head into the wall, I have a few proposed
>> additions
>> to the company schema that (I hope) will be able to address some of
>> the
>> issues people have had about representing the history of companies
>> through
>> M&A, divisions, name changes, and the like.  It's a bit complex, so
>> please
>> bear with me.
>>
>> The biggest change is the addition of a CVT between companies and
>> their
>> subsidiaries; this allows the entering of dates for the subsidiary
>> relationship, since subsidiaries have a tendency to be acquired,  
>> sold,
>> merged, and disbanded with some frequency. I've also created a model
>> for
>> company divisions, which can also be merged and split, and which
>> also have a
>> dated relationship with their parent company, since divisions can be
>> transferred between companies (as part of an M&A or just by
>> themselves).
>> I've also provided a link between an acquisition and division, to
>> allow
>> entering companies that are acquired and turned into divisions (as
>> opposed
>> to becoming subsidiaries or being completely absorbed into the
>> acquiring
>> company).
>>
>> Most of the new types hang off of this one:
>> http://sandbox.freebase.com/type/schema/business/company_division
>> The other main one is the subsidiary relationship CVT:
>> http://sandbox.freebase.com/type/schema/business/subsidiary_relationship
>>
>> Two use cases were put before me, which I think can be accurately
>> modeled in
>> this revised schema.  One is from user sprocketonline, who wanted to
>> model
>> the history of the engineering firm Freeman, Fox and Partners. The
>> text
>> history is something like this:
>> Freeman Fox merged with John Taylor & Sons in 1987 to form Acer
>> Consultants.
>> Acer was purchased by Welsh Water in 1993 and merged with another
>> subsidiary
>> (Wallace Evans & Partners) to form Hyder Consulting (which went
>> under a few
>> names). Hyder was purchased by Western Power Distribution in 2000,  
>> and
>> bought itself out as an independent company in 2001.  Here's how
>> this looks
>> in my model; these are the links to Acer Consultants and Hyder
>> Consulting;
>> everything else is one link away:
>> http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/guid/ 
>> 9202a8c04000641f8000000008d3d94e
>> http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/en/hyder_consulting
>>
>> The other use case is our own Jamie Taylor's pet example of an overly
>> complex company history, the Sperry/Burroughs merger into Unisys,
>> and the
>> attendant corporate histories.  Here's some of what I'm trying to
>> capture:.
>> For Remington Rand: http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/en/
>> remington_rand:
>> The foundation from a merger of three companies;
>> The acquisition of Eckert-Mauchly, which became the UNIVAC Division
>> of Rand
>> The acquistion of Engineering Research Associates, which also  
>> became a
>> division of Rand
>>
>> For Sperry (http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/en/sperry_corporation):
>> The foundation from the merger of two companies, one of which  
>> became a
>> subsidiary;
>> Many name changes;
>> The acquisition of Remington Rand, and the consequent merger of the
>> UNIVAC
>> Division and Engineering Reasearch Associates into a new division,
>> Sperry
>> UNIVAC
>> The merger with Burroughs to form Unisys
>>
>> For Unisys (http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/en/unisys):
>> In addition to the aforementioned merger, the acquisition of
>> Convergent
>> Technologies to form its Network Systems Division.
>>
>> I think I've captured everything, but I'm not sure how easy it will
>> be to
>> traverse.  Comments and suggestions are most welcome.  Note that
>> since this
>> is on sandbox, the examples will self-destruct this Monday.
>>
>> Jeff Prucher
>> Type Librarian & Ontologist
>> Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
>>
>>
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