Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

[1200onthemall]

17 Minnesota companies now listed on the S&P 500 with the addition of Pentair it would be 18 but Super Value was removed in April.

[Unity77]

Looks like the TC area might be losing another corporate headquarters.

Did FICO CEO drop news about HQ move from Twin Cities?
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... njose.html

[Unity77]

It's official. FICO's headquarters is moving from Minneapolis to the San Jose area.

FICO moves headquarters to San Jose
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_ ... s-san-jose

"With the big boom around big data analytics and a significant talent pool in Silicon Valley, this is really a great place to be headquartered," Blatt said. ...

"Operating from our base in Silicon Valley, we can more readily build upon our company's deep talent pool, collaborate with other big thinkers in the world's premier technology hub, and provide our customers worldwide with powerful innovations that will help them compete more effectively in the era of Big Data," Lansing said in a statement.

[web]

wow so the great right wing which claims business is leaving california is completely wrong yet again

[Unity77]

I almost forgot about this thread. Here are some positive news for the Twin Cities area.

Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines is moving its corporate headquarters to the Twin Cities.
* An undetermined number of about 500 headquarters employees to the Twin Cities in May.
* Pinnacle currently has 5,100 employees and 191 aircraft
* 1,500 in Memphis and
* 1,200 in Minnesota including pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and about
* 50 employees at its training facility in Eagan.
* Part of the decision to make the move was based on the fact that there is a lot of space at Minneapolis-St. Paul International. There are two empty hangers at MSP, one of which was built for Mesaba Airlines, as well as office space in building C.

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FedEx Building A New Distribution Center in Maple Grove
* Could end up employing more than 300 people
* New 276,431-square-foot facility

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Washington State Med-Tech Firm Relocating to Plymouth
* Innovative Pulmonary Solutions Inc. (IPS) has changed its name to Holaira
* Holaira is developing technology that aims to treat patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),

[nasa35]

wow so the great right wing which claims business is leaving california is completely wrong yet again

weird...

It's only factual that business is leaving California. One company moving there does not change reality.

Not sure what the "right wing" has to do with it.

[web]

every day we here are bombarded by yes the right wing that business and jobs are leaving California......well guess what jobs are increasing here in california and I do not see Nevada as large as california in jobs....this is supposedly what is happenning according to "right wing sources etc etc"

[twincitizen]

It's the same story here in MN. "Businesses are leaving for Wisconsin or the Dakotas, etc" is the right-wing drumbeat but there's no truth to it.

[gahwi003]

It's the same story here in MN. "Businesses are leaving for Wisconsin or the Dakotas, etc" is the right-wing drumbeat but there's no truth to it.

Well....Businesses technically "are" leaving Minnesota, so sounds like the twisting of words.

[mplsjaromir]

California has plenty of bad policy (low threshold ballot initiatives, Prop 14, endless EIS, super majority requirements in the state assembly) but high taxes have not driven out the very high income residents. Even though the tax burden for low and middle class Californians is low in comparison to other states, the poor and middle class are leaving CA in droves. Taxes on high earners and especially millionaires are especially high, yet that is the only group of people that had a net migration rate 2005-2011. Trullia

This can be attributed to high housing costs. It is basically impossible to build anything where it is desirable, and the tax code favors those who do not move and make no improvements their property i.e. add density. Those households who make near the national average median income level cannot afford a home in a prosperous coastal city.

Back to the larger point that high tax states are punished by having businesses and high earning individuals (makers) leave sounds logical, but the data does not back the notion. Do you think Facebook thought about SD or WI before settling on Silicon Valley? Also thinking about California housing makes me want to punch every smug NIMBY I come across.

[mulad]

Aren't a ridiculous number of companies actually Delaware Corporations anyway? Wells Fargo is a Delaware Corp., yet they are headquartered in San Francisco, and they have a huge employment base here in the Twin Cities -- perhaps the biggest in the company, from what I've heard.

I don't know how all of that works out for taxes, but I get the feeling that the "headquarters" location really doesn't matter -- that's just where the executives want to live. Sometimes it's good for the management to be somewhere away from the rank-and-file, since it restricts the ability to micro-manage (though obviously a management team could go off and decide things that don't make sense, too).

[mplsjaromir]

Most Fortune 500 corporations are headquartered in Delaware. Partly because of taxes, but mostly because Delaware decided it wanted to be where companies Incorporated. They have a court system that is very specialized at sorting out inter-corporation disputes. Laws are very specific in regards to corporation forming. It has worked out well for Delaware and I do not think another state could just copy their idea of being a good place to incorporate.

[Viktor Vaughn]

It's only factual that business is leaving California. One company moving there does not change reality.

From the NY Times: At least three recent academic studies have demonstrated that the number of people who move for tax reasons is negligible, even among the wealthy.

“It’s very clear that, over all, modest changes in top tax rates do not affect millionaire migration,” he told me this week. “Neither tax increases nor tax cuts on the rich have affected their migration rates.”

[kirby96]

It's only factual that business is leaving California. One company moving there does not change reality.

From the NY Times: At least three recent academic studies have demonstrated that the number of people who move for tax reasons is negligible, even among the wealthy.

“It’s very clear that, over all, modest changes in top tax rates do not affect millionaire migration,” he told me this week. “Neither tax increases nor tax cuts on the rich have affected their migration rates.”

My non-scientific theory on why this is so:

"What?!? My taxes are going up? The tax policy in this state is ridiculous! I'm moving!"

<three days go by...>

"Eh. Moving's a hassle. And I sorta like it here. And I'm rich so I can afford to live here. Whatever. Wanna go to the beach?"

[Nick]

This article is a bit of a mess editing-wise, but still an interesting read considering Dorsey was rumored to be looking for more office space.

http://www.startribune.com/business/194 ... page=2&c=y

With 2012 revenue that was at its lowest level in six years, the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney is banking on 2013 to be a turnaround year.

A new management team is in place, the client list is expanding, new attorneys are filling some of the vacant downtown office space and ongoing projects such as legal work on the new Vikings stadium promises to produce a steady revenue stream for several years to come.

Still, Dorsey feels like a firm in transition. Gone is the managing partner of the last six years, Marianne Short, who surprised many in the firm late last year when she left Dorsey to become chief legal counsel for longtime Dorsey client UnitedHealth Group Inc.

[...]

[Unity77]

Looks like MPLS-STPL has lost another Fortune 500 company. Spartan Stores Inc. has bought Nash Finch Co. in an all-stock deal valued at $1.3 billion.

The Twin Cities area has recently been on the losing end of retaining corporate headquarters. We have lost Bemis, Northwest Airlines, Travelers, ATK, PepsiAmericas, ADC Telecommunications, MoneyGram, and FICO.

There are now 17 Fortune 500 companies in the TC area:
UnitedHealth Group
Target
Best Buy
CHS
Supervalu
3M
U.S. Bancorp
General Mills
Medtronic
Land O'Lakes
Ecolab
C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Mosaic
Ameriprise Financial
Xcel Energy
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
St. Jude Medical

[NickP]

I read that article but did not see any indication of moving headquarters. I understand the assumption can be made, but did the article explicitly state that the HQ was moving to Grand Rapids? Maybe Spartan Stores Inc. is now based here

[Unity77]

Well, it's official the Twin Cities has lost another Fortune 500 company. This area's image is really taking a beating by losing all these headquarters (including high paying jobs and talent). It seems as though the TC area is losing 1 or 2 major companies annually. Hopefully, state, business, and civic leaders can figure out a way to convince out of state business executives that this metropolitan area / state is worth staying in. If this keeps up we are only going to be left with Target.

SpartanNash—which was formed through the merger of Nash Finch and Spartan Stores—selected Michigan for its headquarters due to financial incentives, a “positive business climate,” and “a more favorable tax environment.”

http://tcbmag.com/News/Recent-News/2013 ... ne-500-Cos

[bubzki2]

I hardly think the area's "image" is affected in the least. Personally, I'd never heard of this company and the article even says a majority of the employees will be staying here. Trying to reduce overhead? Yeah, MI will beat MN any day of the week - at least until you want to retain your talent long-term.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Well, it's official the Twin Cities has lost another Fortune 500 company.

Wow, that sounds dramatic. The article you linked to says a majority of the 500 jobs will stay here.

This area's image is really taking a beating by losing all these headquarters (including high paying jobs and talent).

Really?! doesn't this area have the lowest unemployment rate of any metropolitan area? Aren't we known having among the best wage / cost of living ratio in the nation?

It seems as though the TC area is losing 1 or 2 major companies annually.

Net company loss? Is this statistic true or just how it seems to you?

It appeared likely, however, that the company would call Michigan home, as its new board makeup is weighted heavily toward former Spartan Stores leaders, which outnumber former Nash Finch directors seven to four.

It looks like Spartan controls the board of the mergered company. So often these decisions come down to where decision-makers live.

Hopefully, state, business, and civic leaders can figure out a way to convince out of state business executives that this metropolitan area / state is worth staying in. If this keeps up we are only going to be left with Target.

How much should we pay corporations to keep jobs in Minnesota? How much should we subsidize each job to move here from elsewhere? Other states are known to pay millions for a few hundred low-wage jobs with no benefits. Some states have no income tax. Do you really think we should compete with the other states with give-a-ways and a free ride? Minnesota needs to focus on being a great place to live and leave the race to the bottom to the desperate.

Hopefully, the moocher class will gravitate to other places. I'm not talking about poor people trying to scrape together a life; I'm talking about those who think the rest of us need to pool our money to fill up the gas tank on their Lear Jet. Maybe the successful people that stay here will realize they did well because they're fortunate enough to be part of a civil society, with roads, schools, public safety, a functioning legal system -- all things that cost money. Maybe if the moochers leave, we would have a civic minded business community once again.