Registration is free but you have to agree to accept e-mail ads in return. Links to information on 65,000 companies. There is a charge for some information but current press releases from PR Newswire, stock price, SEC Filings, contact information and CorpTech Rankings are free. BizWeb links to over 43,000 company Web sites, with an index by industry. Companies House the UK registry for corporations.
Free information is limted to company address, previous names, name changes and dates.
It does provide a series of FAQs and notes on the requirements for registering a company as a limited or PLC corporation. AskAlex A directory of 1.8 million UK companies, searchable by name, product, or location. This is a metasite that provides annotated links to other sites that have data on public and private companies. You can select links to sites in the US, Europe, Asia, or Latin America. It also provides explanations of foreign corporate terms and abbreviations.