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Minnesota business: Year of change

Big business. Big changes. All in Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Buffalo Wild Wings, Valspar, Arctic Cat - all headquartered in Minnesota, all sold in 2017.

"A growing percentage of leaders in Minnesota are getting worried about this," said Dale Kurschner, the Editor In Chief at Twin Cities Business.

Over the last 12 months, Minnesota has lost at least eight major or budding company headquarters. And, with it, we've lost top level executive talent.

"These are the people that invest in our charitable organizations, they invest in giving back to the community, they also are the ones who are the mentors for people who want to start their own businesses," said Kurschner.

There is good news, though.

United Health, 3M, Hormel, and Caribou Coffee all made billion dollar acquisitions this year.

And how about Target?

"For two years we were scratching our heads, saying, where's the growth strategy? And, in 2017, they came out with.. BAM," said Kurschner.

Target pushed out 12 new brands and bought a $550 million dollar same-day delivery company. All to compete with Amazon, which has three distribution facilities and two technology offices here.

"They have over 3,000 jobs here already, they're going to continue to add jobs," said Kurschner.

Which could be executive jobs because, as Kurschner says, Minneapolis keeps moving up the list as a possible spot for Amazon's second Headquarters. That would be historic, as almost all of our Fortune 500 companies are born and raised here. Only lately, some with the potential are being sold first.

"We used to be the place where we had executive teams that were beyond compare worldwide - are we losing that? And, are other states and country's starting to beat us at what we used to be so good at?" asked Kurschner.

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