With Raytheon, United Technologies Merger, Massachusetts Continues To Poach Connecticut Business
A planned merger to create the second-largest U.S. aerospace and defense company will also create Massachusetts’ second-largest company in terms of annual revenue. It would also be the latest chapter of a yearslong exodus of Connecticut companies heading to Massachusetts.
Waltham-based Raytheon and Farmington, Connecticut-based United Technologies announced plans Sunday to merge and create what would be a company with an annual revenue of $74B, second only to Boeing in the military and aerospace sector. The merged company would be based in Greater Boston.
It would trail General Electric — which moved to Boston from Fairfield, Connecticut, in 2016 — in terms of annual revenue of Massachusetts-based companies. GE reported almost $122B in 2018 revenue but is also trimming divisions as part of its ongoing restructuring.
The merged company, expected to be named Raytheon Technologies Corp., would have a stock value of $100B, roughly twice Raytheon’s current value, the Boston Globe reports.
Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt cited tax policy as reason to initially explore outside the company’s longtime home in Connecticut for a new headquarters.
GE said its move to Boston was partially due to the region’s technology sector and ability to recruit talent, but Connecticut leaders were also planning to raise taxes on businesses headquartered in the state at the time.
Since GE’s move, Alexion Pharmaceuticals has also moved to Boston’s Seaport (with more jobs than GE), and MassMutual has boosted its Massachusetts corporate presence, partially at the expense of its Connecticut presence.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont noted Raytheon Technologies Corp.’s headquarters consolidation outside his state would only result in about a 100-job loss. Nearly 19,000 jobs are expected to remain at United Technologies’ various facilities across Connecticut. But it still adds to the Constitution State’s ongoing narrative as a struggling place to do business.
Connecticut is the only New England state that hasn’t recovered all the jobs it lost during the Great Recession, and it needs 22,000 jobs to break even, according to the Globe. By comparison, Massachusetts has gained nearly 500,000 jobs — three times the number it lost during the downturn.
