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Is it a private company?

A private or privately-held company is one that is not raising capital by selling stock to the public. Only the founders, employees, and possibly a few large investors (venture capitalists) may own interest. Consequently no disclosure of information is required of the company according to Federal Securities Laws. Whatever information a private company makes available is completely up to the individual company.

Reference USA (EIC)
Includes addresses and sales information for over 10 million U.S. companies. Very useful for locating smaller businesses (which tend to also be private) as it includes companies of all employee sizes and annual sales ranges.

Hoover's Handbook of Private Companies
(*R-HG4057.A28616)
Short company profiles of the largest US private companies are arranged alphabetically.

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
(near McGraw Desk; *R-HF5035 .W37 or
Gale Business Resources (EIC)
Includes 90,000 US private (90%) and public companies.

Forbes 500 top private companies http://www.forbes.com/private500/
Forbes magazine makes available its list of top private companies over the past three years.