Once again Minnesota is losing more public companies than it gains. In 2018, prominent Minnesota public companies were acquired — including Supervalu Inc. (ranked No. 9 on last year's list), which was acquired by United Natural Foods in October, and Minneapolis-based Capella Education Co. (No. 38 last year), which merged with Strayer Education Inc. in August.

Leaving soon

On Jan. 28, Wayzata-based TCF Financial (No. 28 last year) and Chemical Financial of Detroit, announced a merger of equals. When that deal closes, the TCF name and brand will survive, but the headquarters will move to the Motor City.

Mosaic Co. (No. 14 last year and No. 12 this year) announced in May 2018 that it would move its headquarters from Plymouth to Florida.

Official SEC documents still say Plymouth, but a company spokesman said the move to Tampa has become official, so the company also will move off our list next year.

Debuting this year

NVent Electric makes its debut at No. 21. It started trading as an independent company when Pentair separated its water and enclosures businesses on April 30, 2018. Like Pentair, nVent's headquarters are officially in London but have their management headquarters in St. Louis Park, a half mile from the Golden Valley management headquarters of Pentair.

Ceridian HCM Holdings debuts at No. 34 after it completed the largest IPO in Minnesota. The company sold 24 million shares at $22 per share. A concurrent private offering from private-equity owners raised another $100 million and an overallotment raised total proceeds to $630 million.

So close

It looked like we would pick up a public company last year when ConvergeOne, an Eagan-based IT-services company merged with a company to become publicly traded. But in November, it was acquired by affiliates of CVC Fund VII, an affiliate of private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners, in an all-cash transaction valued at about $1.8 billion.

And when Honeywell International in October spun off its thermal and security solutions business, Resideo Technologies, it looked like the old thermostat business would be centered near its Honeywell roots in Golden Valley. But management of the newly spun-off company said the Golden Valley location is temporary until it can move into new headquarters in Austin, Texas.

DiaMedica Therapeutics completed an equity offering in December 2018, but shares previously traded in Canada. The company raised $16.4 million, which will help with clinical trials for kidney medications it is developing; the development stage company has yet to produce revenue.

Patrick Kennedy