def normalize(name):
    """
    normalizes the name of the company for comparison by lowercasing, substitution
    :param name: the name string
    :return: normalized string
    """
    if name == "-":
        return "company_name_not_available"
    name = name.lower().strip().replace("co ", "company").replace("co.", "company").replace("&", "and")
    name = name.lower().strip().replace("inc ", "incorporated").replace("inc.", "incorporated")
    name = ''.join(e for e in name if e.isalnum()).replace("ltd", "limited")
    return name