• Continued industry coverage expansion
• Comprehensive global content for all applicable industries
• New Working Capital Section on industry-specific financial issues
• Expanded Technology Section on industry-specific technologies
• Historical company benchmark information
• My Favorites for personalized custom saved searches

We’re upgrading our real-time industry insights with dynamic new offerings from FirstRain, a leading provider of news and social media intelligence. These insights, driven by industry-leading web analytics, target the needs of sales and marketing professionals and executives.

You can access your new News and Social intelligence through the “View All News and Social” link in the News and Social section of an industry profile or the “View News and Social” link at the top of an industry profile.

The highlights:

• Event Timeline provides a timeline view of the most significant developments and events affecting the industry over the last year.
• Industry Health Indicators show events that indicate industry growth, movement, or risk.
• Analyst Commentary provides ratings and commentary about the companies in an industry from financial and industry analysts across the global Web.
• Management Changes shows the movement and job changes of key management personnel across an industry.
• Top Business Tweets shows the most relevant, recent, business-focused Twitter activity about companies in the industry.
• Transactions shows noteworthy industry financial activity and transactions such as investment flow, corporate funding and restructuring.

As First Research’s freshly updated valuation multiples data reveals, the recent flurry of M&A activity hasn’t been confined to Wall Street — small business has also seen a surge in acquisitions. The data, provided to First Research by Pratt’s Stats, shows relationships between selling prices and other financial metrics and offer benchmarks for business acquisitions from a variety of industries.

Our latest update suggests an ongoing, broad-based economic recovery across a wide spectrum of industries.

Here’s some of what we found:

• More deals took place in the health care sector, seen in a variety of businesses including physician and dentist offices, chiropractors, and home health care services.
• Construction was a somewhat surprising bright spot as residential contractors and their subcontractors (painting, concrete and masonry, drywall, and plumbing and HVAC) all saw M&A activity rise.
• A significant number of deals in the business services sector (pest control, landscaping, janitorial services) may suggest improved fortunes for retail, professional services, and service-based industries.

To get a better idea of the M&A environment for the industries that affect your bottom line, be sure to check out the newly updated valuation multiples data on First Research.

First Research added more than 50 profiles in 2014, and more are on the way. New profiles scheduled for publication in late January 2015 include Content & Document Management Software, Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing, Nonstore Retail, Refined Petroleum Pipelines, Reinsurance Carriers, and Retirement & Pension Management.

Our goal in adding profiles is to provide more valuable industry insight to you. Many of our new profiles were added as a result of your feedback, so please continue to share your suggestions. And be sure to check out the new profiles and let us know what you think!