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 &amp;
  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.
  

