Hopkinton, Mass., a bucolic New England town of about 15,000 people at the crossroads of state highways 135 and 85, is primarily known for three things: the starting line of the Boston Marathon, enviable public schools, and the corporate offices of one of the world’s larger technology companies.
On Monday, that company, EMC, announced that it was going to be acquired by Dell for $67 billion in a complex deal involving a privately held acquirer (Dell), a publicly held acquisition (EMC), and another publicly traded company that is mostly controlled by EMC (VMWare).
The deal may be complex but the underlying rationale is not: The PC industry has been in a long and slow decline and Dell has been working for years to become less dependent on it. EMC, thanks in no small part to cloud computing technology that is winnowing business customers to a handful of giant companies like Amazon and Google, has had struggles of its own.
But the deal’s impact on Hopkinton and surrounding towns may be harder to quantify. EMC’s impact has been considerable, bringing in jobs, monied newcomers and resources to local schools. The area’s population and wealth has grown along with the company. Executives at both Dell and EMC have so far not said if the deal will result in layoffs, but they are indicating — so far — that the area around Hopkinton could benefit in some way.
It will be quite some time before that is proved true or not. But even if significant cuts should occur, the impact would be nothing like the devastation caused by the collapse of other Massachusetts tech giants, like Digital Equipment and Wang, more than two decades ago.
EMC has an estimated 9,700 employees in Massachusetts, making it the biggest tech employer in the state. But the local tech work force is far more diverse than it once was. Cambridge and Boston host flourishing start-up communities and the classic Route 128 tech employment belt around the city continues to grow. Even IBM, one of EMC’s biggest rivals for business customers, has an estimated 5,000 employees in the state.
EMC becoming part of Dell may be a psychological blow to the local tech economy. But a financial blow? It seems less likely.