This post is a bit wonkish – but update instructions are near the end of this post. We made an update to our CIK mapping file late last week. This is the file the application uses to retrieve filings by companies that have completed some reorganization that triggers filings under a new CIK. Our file maps between the new and the old CIK so if you are trying to match data based on an old CIK but the registrant is filing under a new CIK the application will retrieve the data you requested even if you are using the new (or old) CIK.

For example – the entity know known as The Walt Disney Company files under the current CIK 1744489. Prior to their acquisition/merger with subsidiaries of The Fox Corporation they (Disney) made filings under CIK 1001039 (from late 1995 until late 2019. Prior to 1995 they filed under CIK 29082.

Our mapping file was developed to anticipate you collecting some data from another source that might have one or more of these CIK as the key and you wanting to match that data to some data you would anticipate finding in their filings. If you use the CIK filtering feature or if you retrieve any of our preprocessed data based on CIK – the application interface will have a box to check asking whether you want to use historical CIKs in your search/retrieval. The image below shows the check box to select if you were to run a search and included a CIK filtering file.

It is your option to determine if you want only data for your CIK file or if you want us to augment your CIK list with the values from our mapping file. If you select the Include Historical CIKs option the application will augment your CIK list with all of the additional CIKs that have been associated with the entity. So for example, if you have CIK 1744489 in your sample the application will automatically add CIK 29082 and CIK 1001039 to the in-memory version of your list as it processes the list for the task. If you have a request file that has CIK 1744489 and the YEAR values of 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 – the application will extend your list to include each of the additional CIKs and the YEAR values you identified for your original CIK list. To make this clear – the image below has the the original request in black and the extended list as determined by the application in red.

The values in red are not added to your version of the list – but they are used by the application. However, any missing values (in red or black) will be reported in the missing_cik_year_pairs.csv file at the end of the search/extraction. Sorry for getting lost in the details – but they are important. The real reason for this post is to make sure you remember to periodically update the mapping file on your version of directEDGAR and since we just updated the file this is a perfect time for you to update yours – the process is simple.

From the File menu selection select Options and then select Update Historical CIK. Press the Perform Update button.

The application will call home, license validity will be established and our server will return a copy of the latest mapping file which will be saved for use by the application. When the process is complete (usually a second or two) a confirmation message will appear.

We are still working/struggling to communicate with you about the results – which current CIKs mapped to an older CIK so you are not fully surprised by the fact that you asked for say the MDA from CIK 1744489 from 2018 but instead you received the MDA from CIK 1001039. The challenge is how to do this in real time – for instance APA (CIK 1841666) became the successor registrant to Apache Corp (CIK 6769) on March 1, 2021. While adding the CIK matching to the mapping file is trivial. It is much more complicated to go back and embed a new CIK in all of the prior documents.