Where Dayton's Wealth Changed Hands

The Despoiler's first ledger tallies 22 priced deals since 1979 worth about $83 billion in today's dollars, and most of them sent a Dayton company's decisions somewhere else.

By Richthrax · Oct. 25, 2026

For most of the 20th century, the Miami Valley was a place where big companies were headquartered. Since 1979, it has mostly been a place where they were sold.

That is the pattern in Ledger No. 1, The Despoiler's record of the largest documented deals in which Dayton-area companies, plants and landmark properties changed hands. It covers Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Warren and Clark counties, and adjusts each headline price to August 2026 dollars using the federal Consumer Price Index.

The ledger documents 22 deals with a stated price. Together they add up to about $83 billion in 2026 dollars. Sixteen of the 22 are Dayton companies sold to outside buyers.

The biggest sales

The largest by far is 7-Eleven's $21 billion purchase of Enon-based Speedway from Marathon Petroleum in 2021, about $26 billion today, according to the ledger, which cites WHIO. That single deal is nearly a third of the ledger's total and almost all of the 2020s.

Second is AT&T's 1991 hostile takeover of NCR, the city's best-known company, for $7.4 billion, or about $18.2 billion today.

Then come the utility and the paper company. AES Corp. bought DPL Inc., parent of Dayton Power & Light, for $4.7 billion including debt in 2011. Westvaco merged with Mead Corp. in 2002; the ledger values Mead's share at about $3.1 billion and notes the headquarters moved to Stamford, Connecticut, then to Richmond, Virginia.

Source: The Despoiler, Ledger No. 1. The DPL, Mead, Hobart and Duriron figures are marked "compiled" in the ledger, meaning they were not individually checked.

The pattern: headquarters walk out the door

Read the list top to bottom and the same story repeats. Reynolds and Reynolds was taken private by Houston-based Universal Computer Systems. Procter & Gamble bought Iams in what the ledger calls the largest all-cash deal in P&G history at the time. Duriron's merger moved its headquarters to Texas.

Some local institutions ended entirely. Bon-Ton bought Elder-Beerman for $92.8 million in 2003, and the chain was liquidated in 2018. Taylor Corp. bought Standard Register out of bankruptcy for $307 million in 2015.

Only two entries run the other way: Mead's 1996 purchase of a Boise Cascade paper mill in Rumford, Maine, for $640 million, and Odyssey Investment Partners' $330 million private equity buyout of Dayton Superior in 2000, a figure the ledger marks as compiled.

Selling the buildings

The cheapest entries tell their own story. The University of Dayton bought NCR's 115-acre world headquarters campus for $18 million in 2009. Fuyao Glass America paid $15 million in 2014 for the former GM Moraine Assembly plant, then invested about $250 million, according to the ledger.

The Dayton Mall sold for $32.2 million in 1985 and for $37 million in 2024, to Hull Property Group. After inflation, the 2024 price is less than half the 1985 one.

Jobs, not dollars

The ledger lists headquarters departures and plant closings separately because they are counted in jobs. NCR's 2009 move to Duluth, Georgia, after 125 years cost 1,250 jobs, with $60 million in Georgia incentives. GM closed Moraine Assembly in 2008, affecting 1,100 workers. Teradata moved to San Diego in 2018, taking 275 jobs.

The ledger estimates GM's regional workforce fell from more than 20,000 around 1990 to near zero after 2008, a figure it marks as compiled rather than verified.

What's pending, and what's missing

Still pending is the $33 billion sale of AES Corp., AES Ohio's parent, to Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT. Ohio regulators approved it Sept. 17, 2026, according to the Journal-News.

The ledger is candid about its limits. Most local deals never disclose a price, so sales such as Huffy's 2004 transfer to its Chinese creditors are left out. Of the 22 figures, 16 were checked against a news report, filing or reference; six are marked compiled and may be off.