Massachusetts’ business environment favours business while California’s is more favourable to workers. This was a major reason behin moving the magic from east to west coastal. Mass is still one of the key sectors of biotech/pharma.
Do you think that's what it was? I was in the Boston area during that time (I consulted at Lotus, Wang, and Prime) and mostly it seemed as though the business location was a matter of "where did the founders go to school" (MIT vs Stanford).