Company Sleuth, the web site that marketed itself as the "top covert information specialist providing free, legal, inside information on publicly traded companies" on the Internet no longer offers any of that information -- for fee or free.

While the site is still active, it now only offers links to current financial news in two categories -- "Stock Exchange News" and "Stock Watch News." It is no longer possible to track individual companies or produce the company "reports" that were Company Sleuth's most useful tool.

Gone are the twenty-seven categories of information in which the site formerly aggregated information for users. The "old" Company Sleuth "reports" included recent news, there was also an abundance of other information pending litigation, recent patent or trademark registrations, rumors, insider stock trading, and SEC filings. Other unusual information the site used to collect ranged from "earnings whispers" to alerts of upcoming conference calls and video conference events on specific user-defined companies.

The only information now available beyond the news headlines is an article search utilizing the e-Library.com database of news articles and the Encyclopedia.com reference site.

Earlier, this month, the following message appeared on a hard-to-reach page within the Company Sleuth site:

A message from Company Sleuth...

Company Sleuth would like to thank you for helping us provide a web site for the discerning investor. Unfortunately, we have decided to no longer provide the tracking and notification services of Company Sleuth.

We understand that you still have a desire for great news and information on the market. That's why we have created this page specifically for you with some of the latest market information. You can also use the Company Sleuth Research Library, powered by eLibrary, to dig even deeper into the latest news on your favorite companies.

Currently this page is no longer available.

In May 2001, the site informed its registered users it would begin to charge for reports and company tracking services it had previously offered for free. There is no information offered at the site regarding any reimibursement of subscription fees paid in the May conversion.

For more information on the Company Sleuth's previous offerings see also:

• Carole Levitt's article "Digging for Clues on Public Companies with CompanySleuth.com" at LLRX.com
• Company Sleuth Begins Charging For Reports