Thursday, January 19, 2012

Blog

CNN Best Companies list's one NE techie? Millennium

By Rodney H. Brown

The new Fortune CNN Money list of the best companies to work for has been released, a fact that many tech companies have been pushing me to write about. But the emails I have been getting are from tech companies based outside New England, albeit with a sizable presence here. The only New England-based tech company on the list? Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Co., based in Cambridge.

To give it proper due, Google Inc. is No. 1 on the list, and it has a big operation in Cambridge, where it has an East Coast sales office and an R&D team that has had its hand in everything from the Chrome browser to Google Books to Android and more. Also tooting its own horn, at the No. 19 spot, is Intuit Inc., the financial software company that has a solid presence in Waltham from its acquisition of QuickBase maker Turning Mill Software in 1999.

Millennium, in its turn, also celebrated its No. 35 ranking in the Fortune CNN Money list, noting that it had jumped up from the 56th position last year. Crowing about such accolades isn’t common at Millennium, which seems to prefer to put out releases about new clinical drug trials, laden with enough biotech jargon that only Dr. Moreau can understand it. (I kid — I can understand them too. Sort of. With help from No. 1-ranked Google.)

Raining a bit on the parade, however, is Millennium’s parent Takeda Pharmaceutical of Japan, which on the same day, announced a whopping 2,800 layoffs. Now, Millennium is spared from those it seems, with most of the cuts happening in Europe, specifically related to Swiss drugmaker Nycomed, which Takeda bought last year. And the cuts will be spaced out over the next four years. But the timing could have been better.

Still, feel free to break out the cake and ping pong, Google. Order some pizza and uncover the foosball tables, Intuit. In fact, since you are both based in Mountain View, Calif., maybe you can have a combined party. Meanwhile, perhaps Millennium can take their employees out to Cambridge Brewing Co. for a beer. Or, since the award is for the Best Companies to Work for, order in some kegs. That’s got to kick you higher up the list next year.