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

[Jeff Prucher]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com 
> [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of John 
> Giannandrea

> 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.

Neither choice seems very satisfactory to me. I agree that "companies
merging" is weird from the "involved in merger" side. But I think that
"merged with" is just as weird from the "product of merger" side -- the
product didn't merge with anything. 

> also 'involved_in_merger' could conceivably be on 
> defunct_company rather than company if you always mark a 
> merged company as defunct.

It is possible for a company in a merger to continue as a subsidiary of the
new company; this is what happened with Sperry Gyroscope when it merged to
form Sperry Corp.  I think I've also seen evidence of two companies
technically merging but continuing on under the corporate identity of one of
the two companies, so I think these should stay on Company.

Jeff

> 
> 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_relationsh
> > ip
> >
> > 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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