Once a stable home for corporate America, Connecticut found itself reeling from changes over the past decade as some of the state’s biggest companies remade themselves.
United Technologies Corp. and Aetna Inc. rode a wave of change in aerospace and health care to negotiate deals resulting in the departure of both companies’ headquarters here. General Electric Co.’s chief executive officer, meanwhile, followed his vision of a new digital mission to lead the conglomerate out of Connecticut and its suburban office parks and away from rising taxes.
Looking back at the past 10 years, Courant editors and reporters have selected the transformation of some of the state’s biggest corporations as one of the top stories that shaped the decade.
At the start of 2010, GE was in Fairfield and its market value was $161 billion. By December 2019, GE’s market value — beaten down by a bad bet on energy, the Great Recession’s toll on its finance business and numerous other problems — had fallen to $96 billion, a loss of 40% of its market value. And it had moved to Boston.
During the decade, United Technologies’ fortunes moved in the opposite direction. It nearly doubled its market value, to $128 billion from $65 billion, as it acquired aerospace manufacturers Goodrich Corp. in 2012 and Rockwell Collins Inc. in 2018. In April, UTC will transform itself even more, spinning off Otis elevator and Carrier heating and cooling, merging with defense giant Raytheon Co. and renaming itself Raytheon Technologies Corp. It also is set to move to the Boston area.
Aetna, founded in Hartford in 1853, remains in the capital city. But it ended the decade as a subsidiary of CVS Health Corp., the Woonsocket, R.I.-based pharmacy giant. CVS paid $69 billion for Aetna in 2018 to extend its business to consumers with “Minute Clinics” that provide retail clinic services.
GE moves to Boston
Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt directed GE’s move to Boston in 2016, abandoning the manicured Fairfield campus that had been home to its headquarters since 1974. Immelt said he wanted GE to capitalize on Boston’s expansive network of universities and colleges to hire engineers, software designers and others as it doubled down on digital applications of its medical equipment, aviation, energy and other businesses.
Immelt also waded into Connecticut’s tax debate, as GE criticized tax increases proposed in 2015 by then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and fellow Democrats running the legislature. Malloy and lawmakers ultimately scaled back some of the increases, which were the second round in four years and drew complaints from insurance companies, manufacturers and other businesses.
GE’s move, which Immelt initially said was a business decision, became a political issue. Republicans pointed to the loss of the marquee headquarters as a sensible and natural response to Democrats’ tax and economic development policies, putting Malloy on the defensive.
GE’s board replaced Immelt in 2017 with a new CEO as investors fled the company, hammering the share price and forcing executives to sell off GE businesses and seek a new direction for the company. Its Boston headquarters was scaled back and GE returned to Massachusetts $87 million in economic development aid, taking some of the luster off the deal negotiated with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
Source: Hartford Courant