The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk and financial analysis, operations and supply, and sales and marketing professionals, as well as research and insights on global business issues. It serves customers in government and industries such as communications, technology, strategic financial services, and retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing markets. Often referred to as D&B, the company's database contains over 500 million business records worldwide. History 1800s Dun & Bradstreet traces its history to July 20, 1841, with formation of The Mercantile Agency in New York City by Lewis Tappan. Recognizing the need for a centralized credit reporting system, Tappan formed the company to create a network of correspondents who would provide reliable, objective credit information to subscribers. As an advocate for civil rights, Tappan used his abolitionist connections to expand and update the company's credit information. Despite accusations of personal privacy invasion, by 1844 the Mercantile Agency had over 280 clients. The agency continued to expand, opening offices in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. By 1849, Tappan retired, allowing Benjamin Douglass to take over the booming business. In 1859, Douglass transferred the company to Robert Graham Dun, who immediately changed the firm's name to R. G. Dun & Company. Over the next 40 years, Graham Dun continued to expand the business across international boundaries. 1900s In March 1933, Dun merged with competitor John M. Bradstreet to form today's Dun & Bradstreet. The merger was engineered by Dun's CEO, Arthur Whiteside. Whiteside's successor, J. Wilson Newman, worked to extend the company's range of products and services, expanding the company dramatically during the 1960s by engineering ways to apply new technologies to evolving operations. Moody's, a credit reporting agency, was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in 1962. The Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (D&B D-U-N-S Number) was invented in 1963. Other companies acquired during this time included R.H. Donnelley, Official Airline Guides, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., Funk & Wagnalls, Technical Publishing, and McCormack & Dodge, all since divested. In 1986, Dun & Bradstreet acquired the education data company Market Data Retrieval (MDR). That year, Dun & Bradstreet sold Technical Publishing to Cahners Publishing. In 1996, the company restructured, creating three entities: Dun & Bradstreet, Nielsen, and the Cognizant Corporation. Cognizant Corporation included Nielsen TV Ratings,