The paper summarizes the results of a follow-up study on the effects of globalization in an old industrial town in eastern Finland called Varkaus. Until the 1980s, the town was dominated by one large Finnish company. Since then, the company has sold all its businesses in the town, and almost all have been acquired by foreign companies. The analysis reveals that in the first phase, during the 1990s foreign ownership has primarily had a positive impact on the development of the business units acquired although there were some problems between local business units and their new owners. During the more recent years the effects of globalization have changed towards more negative direction. This is not because of foreign ownership but due to changes in the competitiveness of Finland and the town as business environment. Today, Finnish forest multinationals invest in Russia, China and in the South America. Instead, in Finland and in Varkaus some old paper machines have been closed. In addition, due to globalization pressure firms in Finland and Varkaus try to develop new high-tech products. For high-tech product development old industrial towns are not the best business environment and therefore in Varkaus the major automation company has decided to move its facilities to a bigger university city in Finland.
