MacMillan Bloedel, Westcoast Energy, Terasen, Daon Development, Canaccord, Whistler Blackcomb, Future Shop, Avigilon—there's no shortage of B.C. company head offices that have vanished as a result of corporate takeovers.

Whenever another one is consigned to the graveyard, it can spell bad news for local accounting and legal firms that provide professional services.

These takeovers can also undermine corporate philanthropy because CEOs sometimes have a tendency to direct donations in cities where they live.

One of the legends in this area was forest executive H.R. MacMillan, whose name is on the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vanier Park. The Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park is another example of MacMillan Bloedel's penchant for giving away money in Vancouver.

Mining giant Goldcorp has also been a notable corporate donor in Vancouver.

It gave $10 million to SFU to finance the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodward's. This breathed new life into the cultural and intellectual life of the city

Goldcorp has also financed Indigenous business education at UBC's Sauder School of Business.

In addition, the company gave $5 million to a new earth-sciences building at UBC. It pumped millions of dollars into addiction research through Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health. The addiction research money is enabling the B.C. Centre for Substance Use to train medical professionals to save more lives.

These contributions have helped diminish local criticism of Goldcorp for its sometimes controversial mining activities in Latin America.

But today, Vancouverites learned that Goldcorp's head office is going to disappear as a result of yet another corporate takeover.

U.S.-based Newmont Mining is acquiring the company in a share swap valued at US$10 billion.

Goldcorp's Vancouver head office will become a regional office with responsibility for Indigenous relations. 

The head office of the company—which will be called Newmont Goldcorp—will be in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Coincidentally, that's about 50 kilometres south of Broomfield, which is where Whistler Blackcomb's owner, Vail Resorts, maintains its head office.