SAN FRANCISCO, NOT REGION, HURT BY RESTRUCTURING
Corporate mergers and acquisitions
in and around San Francisco over the past seven years have had
only a modest effect on the metropolitan area's economy, a
leading business-backed organization said.
    The Bay Area Council, a group of more than 300 business
firms, said that a study of corporate restructuring in a
nine-county area found that San Francisco itself had suffered
some ill effects from corporate shake-ups but that surrounding
communities had not.
    Seventeen of the 32 Fortune 500 companies in the area left
due to corporate restructuring between 1979 and 1986, but
another 21 firms were added to the list.
    Ten of the departing companies were based in San Francisco.
During the period, only six located in the city achieved
Fortune 500 status.
    Ted Hall, a council director and local managing director of
McKinsey and Co. which conducted the survey, said the study
grew out of concern that mergers and acquisitions had seriously
hurt the economic climate of northern California.
    However, Hall said that only about 36,000 jobs had been
lost in the region, while more than 600,000 new jobs were
created during the period.
    At the same time, he said, the region experienced a greater
rise in per capita income and lower unemployment than the rest
of the United States and California.
    Council President George Keller, who also is chairman and
chief executive officer of Chevron Corp., told a news
conference that the region had difficulties in persuading
companies to locate there because of a fragmented local
political system.
    But he said that because of the amenities of living in San
Francisco, he was the envy of many chief executives in other
metropolitan area.
    "It's a great place to run a business," he added, "but it's
a hell of a place to do business with government."
    The study concluded that Chevron, which mergered with Gulf
Oil in 1984, would benefit in the long run from the
restructuring activity.
    Among the corporate headquarters lost during the period
were Crown Zellerbach, Memorex, Southern Pacific, Castle &
Cooke and Rolm.
    Companies that grew enough during the period to make the
Fortune 500 list included Apple Computer, Pacific Telesis,
McKesson, Tandem Computer, U.S. Leasing and Amfac.
    The study by the management consulting firm said that,
partly due to corporate restructuring, the rate of job growth
in San Francisco has slowed since 1980.
    In addition, it said that the loss of corporate leadership
had adversely affected some of the Bay Area's civic and
charitable activities.
 Reuter
