The Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area is the 15th-largest agglomeration in the United States, and is home to many corporations, companies, and divisions. The core cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul host many companies, but a number are in suburban cities.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is one of the country's major economic hubs, with several Fortune 1000 companies and the world's largest privately held corporation, Cargill.
As of 2010, the following Fortune 1000 and Forbes Largest Private companies have their headquarters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area:[1][2]
Wells Fargo continues to have a major presence in Minneapolis, and the city is home to the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage division. In 1998, Norwest Bank of Minneapolis bought Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco, California. Because Wells Fargo had more brand recognition, Norwest chose to rename itself Wells Fargo Bank and moved its headquarters from Minneapolis to San Francisco.
Honeywell was headquartered in Minneapolis but moved to Morristown, New Jersey to occupy Allied Signal's headquarters after the two companies merged in 1999. Honeywell's former headquarters is now occupied by Wells Fargo.
The Soo Line Railroad is based in Minneapolis, but is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The company headquarters still exist as the Soo Line Building.
Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company produced Ceresota flour in Minneapolis from 1891 to 1953. Its Elevator A, and A and F mills are still standing and two of these structures are in use as office buildings.
ReliaStar Life Insurance Co. was bought by ING of the Netherlands but still maintains division headquarters in Minneapolis.
Dain Rauscher was bought by RBC of Canada but still maintains division headquarters in Minneapolis.
Burlington Northern was based in St. Paul until it merged with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to form the BNSF Railway. It is now based in Fort Worth, Texas.
The St. Paul Companies was the oldest company in Minnesota. In 2004, they merged with Travelers and in 2009 they moved their headquarters to New York City.
In 2008, Northwest Airlines announced that it was merging with Delta Air Lines and moving its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia.