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Evaluating NCR’s decision will take years

The NCR building on Patterson Boulevard will be put up for sale. The few remaining operations of NCR in Dayton will not be located there.

Ron Alvey/Ron Alvey The NCR building on Patterson Boulevard will be put up for sale. The few remaining operations of NCR in Dayton will not be located there.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 2:12 AM Wednesday, June 3, 2009

DAYTON — Only time will tell if NCR Corp.’s plan to leave Dayton to focus its operations in Georgia was the right call for the company and its shareholders, business watchers said.

“It’s a situation of potentially high rewards for NCR, as well as a substantial amount of risk that goes with it,” said Gil Luria, vice president for research at Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. in Los Angeles, who tracks NCR. “You’re hiring a lot of people in Georgia. You’re laying off a lot of people in Ohio. That’s a lot of distraction.”

It will be five to 10 years before there is an adequate financial record to evaluate whether NCR made the right decision, said Peter Ward, chairman of the management sciences department in Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business.

“Lots of costs up front, and then the benefits come later,” Ward said. “It was a business decision. Whether or not it was right is another question.”

Luria said the company hopes to significantly reduce operating costs by receiving tax incentives, grants and more favorable lease rates in the Atlanta area, where it will relocate its headquarters and consolidate other corporate functions, and Columbus, Ga., where it plans to create a new North American manufacturing plant for automated teller machines.

NCR hasn’t publicly spelled out plans for which Dayton-area employees would be offered company-paid relocations to Georgia, or who will receive severance benefits here.

NCR makes and sells ATMs abroad and, like other major U.S. companies, is trying to boost its business in developing countries. Atlanta’s airport and the broad array of international flights it offers was undoubtedly appealing to NCR’s senior management, said Ned Hill, Cleveland State University’s vice president for economic development. But, he noted, Cincinnati’s airport also is a Delta Air Lines hub that offers international service.

“The practice of their business is increasingly global. They had the need for as much global reach from an airport as they could get,” Hill said Tuesday, June 2. “My disappointment is that they didn’t reach out to the state (of Ohio) and see if Cincinnati could be a competitive location.”

Shares of NCR (NYSE: NCR) fell by 42 cents to close Tuesday at $10.97, down sharply from the past-year high of $28.09.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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