Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/469117
www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal 55 25 YEARS: IN REVIEW Accredited by Compaq Computer, after approval by the Federal Trade Commission. DEC, based in Maynard until 1993, was a leading maker and seller of networked computer systems, software and servic- es. At its peak, it generated annual reve- nue of more than $14 billion, employed more than 120,000, and was the world's second-largest computer company. But in an industry that changes constantly, DEC's products fell victim to the rise of the personal computer in the 1990s. The $33 million interchange at the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 146 opens. This marked the first phase of the "Little Dig," so called because it was dwarfed by the much more intri- cate – and expensive – "Big Dig" that transformed traffic flow into and out of Boston in the 1990s. With the opening of the new Exit 10A on the turnpike, vehicles could move into and out of Worcester more conveniently. It would also spur development within the Blackstone Valley towns between the turnpike and the Rhode Island border. Tennessee-based Provident, the par- ent company of Paul Revere Insurance of Worcester, merges with Unum, of Portland, Maine. The company is called UnumProvident until 2007, when it's shortened to Unum. Thirty-one years after its founding, Data General Corp. of Westborough is sold to Hopkinton-based EMC Corp. for a reported $1.1 billion. Michael Ruettgers, then the president and CEO of EMC, saw an opportunity to grow his company in buying Data General, which had helped advance the business computing paradigm from one based largely on mainframes to one based on minicom- puters. But the shift to the personal com- puter and the Internet in the 1990s caused another seismic shift in the tech- nology business. Yet, since Data General had also been a major supplier of com- puter storage systems and servers, the marriage with EMC made sense. Fleet Financial Group merges with BankBoston in a $15 billion deal, making it the eighth-largest bank in the United States, with $180 billion in assets. Amid concerns that there would be one dominant bank in the region, some 275 Fleet offices and BankBoston branches in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut would be placed in the hands of other banks. HealthAlliance Hospital of Leominster becomes part of UMass Memorial Health Care in August, a year after both entities approached the state for its review of a potential merger. The New York Times Co. purchases the Telegram & Gazette in October for about $295 million after seven suit- ors sought to buy Worcester's daily newspaper from San Francisco-based Chronicle Publishing Co. The deal came six years after the Times bought The Boston Globe. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences begins its expansion to downtown Worcester by purchasing a building on Foster Street for $350,000. The school, now known as MCPHS University, spent $20 million to buy and renovate downtown property over the next sev- eral years after it raised $1 million in private funding. Massport signs a five-year agreement with the city to manage and operate Worcester Regional Airport. A year later, it brought in three additional airlines. 1999 Digital Equipment Corp.'s PDP-7 computer >> Continued on Page 57