Information is king, and business valuation pros realize that success often hinges on the nature of their data sources. Early results of BVR’s 2013 BV Firm Economics and Best Practices Guide reveal the three most widely used private and/or public company transaction databases to be Pratt’s Stats (used by 81% of survey respondents), BIZCOMPS (60%), and Factset/Mergerstat (39%).

Other transactional databases mentioned, in descending order, are: NACVA/IBA Transaction Database (36%), Public Stats (30%), Capital IQ (23%), DoneDeals (19%), PitchBook (15%), and Thomson Financial Worldwide M&A (5%).

In terms of yearly rankings, Pratt’s Stats has been in the top spot since BVR began the survey in 2006. BIZCOMPS has held steady in the second position during this same time span. Factset/Mergerstat edged past the NACVA/IBA Transaction Database for third place this year.

Our thanks to everyone who participated in the survey, which collected data on a variety of issues. We will provide further analyses here in future issues of BVWire and also in the BV Update.