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Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet was founded in 1841 as the Mercantile Agency, building the first commercial credit bureau.
Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet was founded in 1841 as the Mercantile Agency, building the first commercial credit bureau. Bill Foley has chaired the board since the 2019 take-private by a consortium including Cannae Holdings and Black Knight, and Clearlake Capital acquired the firm outright in a $7.7 billion transaction announced in 2025. The corporate headquarters sits in Jacksonville, Florida, with a significant office in Short Hills, New Jersey. The firm invests its corporate balance sheet and acquisition capacity in data, analytics, and compliance platforms that extend its core credit and risk data franchise. Asset classes include whole-company acquisitions in enterprise software and data services, with a geographic footprint anchored in North America and global data coverage spanning over 200 countries. Confirmed acquisitions under recent ownership include Bisnode, a European data and analytics firm, and Eyeota, an audience data platform for digital marketing. D&B operates with roughly 6,300 employees globally as of its 2024 filings, and the Clearlake take-private in 2025 shifts its capital structure from public to private markets. Adjacent entities include The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation Foundation, the firm's philanthropic vehicle, and historical ties to Cannae Holdings and Fidelity National Financial through Foley's chairmanship. The 2025 acquisition by Clearlake marks the most recent structural event. The structural differentiator is the D-U-N-S Number itself — a proprietary nine-digit identifier embedded in U.S. federal procurement, FDA registrations, and global supply-chain compliance. No competitor has replicated its regulatory moat as a de facto standard for entity verification. The firm now deploys this asset as private-equity-backed infrastructure rather than a publicly traded data vendor.
General information
Firm type
Corporate Investor
Year founded
1841
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Jacksonville
Corporate office
Jacksonville, FL, United States
Additional offices
Short Hills, NJ, United States
Principals
Bill Foley
Chairman of the Board
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Dun & Bradstreet?
As a corporate entity rather than a fund manager, investment decisions — primarily M&A and corporate development — are made by the executive leadership team under the board chaired by Bill Foley. Following the 2025 Clearlake Capital take-private, the private-equity owner holds ultimate strategic and capital-allocation authority.
Does Dun & Bradstreet invest in external funds or only direct deals?
The firm does not operate as a fund investor or limited partner. Its investment activity consists of direct whole-company acquisitions that expand its data, analytics, and compliance platform, such as the acquisitions of Bisnode and Eyeota.
What makes Dun & Bradstreet's data asset structurally unique?
The D-U-N-S Number is the firm's core structural moat. It is required for U.S. federal procurement bidding, FDA drug-establishment registration, and is embedded in global supply-chain compliance frameworks as a de facto entity-verification standard. No competitor has replicated this regulatory and operational integration at scale.
How is Dun & Bradstreet related to Cannae Holdings and Bill Foley?
Bill Foley, who chairs Dun & Bradstreet, also chairs Cannae Holdings and Fidelity National Financial. Cannae was part of the original investor consortium that took D&B private in 2019, and the 2025 Clearlake acquisition represents the next phase of private ownership for the firm.
What is Dun & Bradstreet's known posture on data privacy and regulatory risk?
As a collector and steward of commercial entity data on millions of businesses globally, D&B operates under multiple data-protection regimes including GDPR in Europe and evolving U.S. state-level privacy laws. The firm's regulatory risk profile is tied to its data-aggregation and scoring models, particularly its credit-risk products.
Does Dun & Bradstreet maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation Foundation exists as a separate philanthropic entity. Its activities and governance are distinct from the commercial operations and investment decisions of the parent company.
What sectors does Dun & Bradstreet explicitly invest in through M&A?
The firm targets data, analytics, and compliance software companies that extend its core credit and risk intelligence franchise. Confirmed acquisitions include audience-data platforms and European business-information firms, with no known investments outside enterprise data and analytics.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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