D&B’ history
Dun & Bradstreet seized its opportunity at an early stage and is now the biggest business and credit information company in the world. D&B was formed back in 1841 in the USA at the time of the gold rush and the pioneering spirit. Lawyers and sheriffs were the credit raters of the day. They visited businesses and sent their reports by courier on horseback to the head office in New York. The reports were analysed, compiled and published there. This work could take a year and when it was done it was time to start over again.
The company’s founder Lewis Tappan spoke out against slavery and was the object of several attempted murders on account of this. He gradually passed the company on to his son-in-law, Robert Graham Dun. Dun merged with his arch competitor John M Bradstreet in 1933 and the company continued to grow. Dun & Brad¬street soon became a prestigious company. Four US presidents have worked for it. The two companions Dun and Bradstreet were innovators in many respects, particularly when it came to finding creative solutions to information management. Dun was the first in the world to order typewriters from their inventor Philo Remington.
Dun & Bradstreet bought the Swedish company Soliditet in 1969 but a change of law in 1975, stipulating that foreign companies could not own Swedish credit information companies, led to Soliditet being sold to what is now Intrum Justitia.
In 1993, Dun & Bradstreet bought Soliditet for the second time when the 1975 Act was amended. In December 2003, Dun & Bradstreet in Sweden was acquired by Bonnier Affärsinformation, which already owned the company KreditFakta. At the same time, KreditFakta changed its name to Soliditet.
D&B Sverige AB and AAA Soliditet AB are now part of Bisnode AB, Europe’s leading publisher of digital business information with services in credit, market and product information. Bisnode is divided into five divisions in 19 European countries and has 3000 employees. Since 2005, Ratos AB has had a 70% interest in Bisnode. Bonnier AB has the other 30%.
Read more about Soliditet.
Read more about Bisnode.