Patent ID: 8355968

Claim:
A method of identifying potential targets for a capital transaction, said method comprising the steps of: enabling a user to specify at least one investment criterion; enabling said user to specify a type of said capital transaction, wherein the type of capital transaction is a (1) merger and acquisition, (2) venture capital growth, (3) private equity growth, or (4) turnaround; selecting, using a computer, a scoring algorithm based on said user's selection of said type of capital transaction for assigning scores for said potential targets; organizing, using said computer, at least one of said investment criteria in a hierarchical structure wherein said organizing step comprises the step of arranging said hierarchical structure such that increasing depth of said hierarchical structure corresponds to increased specificity of said investment criteria; selecting, using said computer, said investment criteria from the group consisting of industry classification, firm characteristics, and geographies; and normalizing, by said computer, maximum scores of said investment criteria to a score for said industry classification criterion.