Friday, June 12, 2009

Flashback Friday: Industry leaders

Considering all the news about firms entering bankruptcy, has given me pause to think of Boston based employers that once upon a time dominated this area, much the way firms like Fidelity Investments, Raytheon, Staples, and EMC do today. Growing up in the Boston area in the 1980s, everyone knew someone who worked at Polaroid, Digital or Wang.

Polaroid, although still technically around, is merely a shadow of itself and no longer associated with Boston the way it once was. Both Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Wang Laboratories have been gone for decades - and the collapses of both these giants was traumatic, leaving tens of thousands of people in the area unemployed.

The graveyard of Boston businesses of past is both long and filled with recognizable names. Bank of Boston and BayBank as well as Lotus all come to mind for me. Which firms that once were considered the darlings of Wall Street, employed tens of thousands and called Boston home do you recall?

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