No, there was a downturn in both the defense and the aviation industry that hit Boeing like a double whammy. It laid off tens of thousands before the acquisition and tens of thousands afterwards, for a total of over 100k laid off in the 1990s (Boeing has 170k employees today). They used this opportunity to disproportionately target older and more expensive employees which led to many of their best engineers getting canned.
Everyone likes to point to the McDonnell Douglas acquisition as Boeing’s downfall but the truth is that Boeing executives had already gutted the company.
In fairness, everyone probably likes to point to that because it was one of the primary conclusions reached by investigative journalist Peter Robison in the book "Flying Blind."
Everyone likes to point to the McDonnell Douglas acquisition as Boeing’s downfall but the truth is that Boeing executives had already gutted the company.