List of companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area explained
This is a list of current and former companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area, broken down by type of business.
Fortune 500 rankings are indicated in parentheses. As of 2020, 38 Fortune 500 companies had headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1]
San Francisco-based businesses are not listed here; the subset of San Francisco-based businesses by type is at the list of companies based in San Francisco. This list includes extant businesses formerly located in the Bay Area, which have moved, or been bought out by other companies and had their headquarters relocated. With the booming tech industry in San Francisco, businesses face a lot of pressure to keep up with the surge of new companies.
Companies currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Aerospace/defense
Apparel
Automotive
Biotechnology
Consumer goods
Creative/design
Education
Electronics
Energy
Engineering and construction
Entertainment
Financial
Food and drink
Food and drink establishments with one location are not included in this list. Local and regional establishments with more than one location are included.
Healthcare
Internet
Media
Mobile media
Musical instruments and accessories
Networking
Real estate
Retail
Software
Sports
Telecommunications
Transportation and logistics
Companies formerly based in the San Francisco Bay Area
This list contains both extant companies which have moved their headquarters out of the Bay Area (often during a corporate buyout), and defunct companies.
- Bank of America (9) – relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina
- Bare Escentuals – purchased by Shiseido, now headquarters in Rutherford, New Jersey
- Bechtel – relocated to Reston, Virginia
- Best Manufacturing Company – San Leandro (defunct)
- Calpine Corporation (318) – relocated to Houston, Texas
- Caterpillar Inc. (50) – relocated to Peoria, Illinois
- Chaosium – formerly based in Oakland, then Hayward, now based in Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Charles Schwab Corporation (271) – San Francisco – moved to Westlake, TX
- Charlotte Russe – acquired by YM Inc.
- ComputerLand – Hayward (defunct)
- Esprit – relocated to Ratingen, Germany and Hong Kong, China
- Etec Systems, Inc. – Hayward (defunct)
- Excite@Home – purchased by Ask.com
- Flickr – acquired by Yahoo!
- FMC Corporation (Farm Machinery Corp, Farm Machinery and Chemical Corp) – moved headquarters from San Jose to Chicago; subsequently moved to Philadelphia
- Folgers Coffee – acquired by The J.M. Smucker Co.
- Friden, Inc. – San Leandro (defunct)
- Hambrecht & Quist, LLC – purchased by Chase Manhattan Bank, later folded into JP Morgan Securities following Chase's purchase of JPM
- Hearst Corporation – relocated to New York City
- Hills Brothers Coffee – purchased by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA
- Hunt Brothers Cannery – moved from Hayward
- JanSport – Alameda acquired by VF Corporation
- Jamba Juice – moved from Emeryville to Frisco, Texas
- Knight-Ridder – purchased by The McClatchy Company
- Leslie Salt – purchased by Cargill in 1978
- Maxtor – Milpitas – acquired by Seagate
- McKesson Corporation – moved from San Francisco to Irving, Texas
- Mervyn's – Hayward (defunct)
- Montgomery Securities – purchased by NationsBank Corporation on June 30, 1997
- National Semiconductor – Santa Clara – acquired by Texas Instruments
- NUMMI – automobile manufacturer (defunct)
- Oracle (82) – moved headquarters from Redwood City to Austin, Texas
- Pacific Telesis – acquired by SBC Communications, which became AT&T when it purchased AT&T Corporation
- Pegasus Aviation Finance Company – acquired by AWAS
- Peterbilt Motors – relocated to Denton, Texas
- Pier 1 – started in San Mateo, now headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas
- Qume – Hayward (defunct)
- Robertson Stephens – closed by its parent company FleetBoston in July 2002
- Rolling Stone – relocated to New York City, New York
- SanDisk – Milpitas – acquired by Western Digital
- Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker – acquired by The Hershey Company
- Southern Pacific – acquired by Union Pacific Railroad
- Swensen's Ice Cream – acquired by International Franchise Corp (IFC) of Markham, Ontario, Canada
- Tesla (124) – moved to Austin, TX
- Transamerica – purchased by Aegon
- United Commercial Bank – acquired by East West Bank
- URS Corporation – San Francisco – acquired by AECOM
- Victoria's Secret – started in Palo Alto, now headquartered in Reynoldsburg, Ohio
- Virgin America – Burlingame – acquired by Alaska Airlines
- Yahoo! (353) – Sunnyvale- acquired by Verizon Media
See also
Notes and References
- News: . Fortune 500.
- Web site: Hayward manufacturer turns diesel-burning trucks into all-electric vehicles. June 4, 2015. East Bay Times.
- https://www.zoetrope.com/american-zoetrope/history
- Web site: Beam Team Games and North Beach Games Announce Stranded Deep for Playstation®4 and Xbox One. 27 May 2022. Business Wire. en.
