Leaving CA: Tech Giant Oracle Leaving California for Texas
Oracle joining HP Enterprise and tech leader Elon Musk for moves to Texas
By Evan Symon, December 12, 2020 2:30 am
On Friday, Oracle, one of the largest computer technology companies in the world, announced that they would move their headquarters from Redwood City in the Bay Area to Austin, Texas.
Oracle’s move is only the latest such move of tech companies leaving the Bay Area for other states such as Colorado, Florida, or Texas. In the last 10 days, HP Enterprise and tech leader Elon Musk have also announced moves to Texas in favor of more tax-friendly and business-friendly environments.
“Oracle is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas,” Oracle said in their SEC filing. “We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work. Depending on their role, this means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part-time or all of the time. In addition, we will continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world, including those in the United States such as Redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, among others, and we expect to add other locations over time. By implementing a more modern approach to work, we expect to further improve our employees’ quality of life and quality of output.”
A statement by Oracle on Friday further confirmed the move, noting that “Oracle is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas. We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work.”
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas also tweeted a confirmation of the move.
BREAKING: Oracle just announced they have moved their Headquarters to Austin.
Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity.
We will continue to attract the very best.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 11, 2020
Oracle, founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, has been based in Redwood City since 1989. While the company is expected to still have many offices and a large portion of its employees working in California, the headquarters itself will remove another major tax base for the Bay Area and the state as a whole.
“While it’s not leading to a lot of job loss, especially with remote work being emphasized as not going anywhere, this is a real blow,” explained San Francisco-based tech lawyer David Singth to the Globe. “Oracle gave a lot to San Mateo County and California. Even with the campus still serving as a hub, that’s a lot of money walking out the door.
“You also have to notice, that besides for a few exceptions, this is really only happening to companies in the Bay Area. Southern California has a lot more established and integrated companies there. A lot of residents there see it all simply more as a “sunshine tax.” Plus there are not many real “based” companies there as much as they have huge regional presences, which has protected them since after WWII when most West Coast bases for companies moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. San Diego and the Inland Empire benefit from this too.”
“San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and all around here, it’s all based largely on start-ups that can move in or out on a moments notice. Even companies like Oracle that have been around for decades, it’s not ingrained like Coca-Cola in Atlanta or GM in Detroit. So they can pack up and go to other tech hubs. Silicon Valley got a bunch in the 80’s and 90’s from companies moving out of Texas, especially after the dot com bust, but now it’s reversing because of high taxes, more and more regulations that are squeezing companies, and now, a release of a need for many offices because of remote work.”
“It is bad for California as a whole because of the taxes and policies, but the media has to be more specific about it. SoCal isn’t losing that much. In fact, Some Bay area residents have moved to the LA area because it’s cheaper if you were looking for something completely boggling today. It’s kept the housing market strong there too. No, we have to identify this as a Bay Area problem that has been hurting California.”
“You can even look at this politically. Every region of California has significant, sometimes majority, Republican leanings, which often means more pro-business stances. Even Southern California what with Orange County and the Desert areas. But not the Bay Area, and by extension, Silicon Valley. They relied on tech to back some of their policies, and now it’s hurting them, and because of state taxes and things, the state in turn.”
“Oracle is just the latest symptom of that.”
Other Bay Area tech companies are currently mulling over moves out of California for 2021 and may announce moves in upcoming SEC filings.
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San Francisco-based tech lawyer David Singth is suffering from a BAD case of rationalization….
The outmigration of Bay Area tech firms in the last five years alone is STAGGERING…
UNFORTUNATELY, the Denver eco-devo team is throwing wheelbarrow-loads of cash incentives to these companies who relocate their millennial liberal techno-coolies with,them which has turned downtown Denver into San Franfreakshow East, and a hipster hellhole…
Charles Schwab essentially maintains a PO box in San Fran and has built a small city in Lone Tree CO, which has turned THAT formerly beautiful neighborhood into H1B-ville, but the CA failure leaders better wake the hell up,quickly because large established TAX PAYING companies are voting with their feet and getting the hell out of Dodge…
Newsom The Greaseball is presiding over the largest employment outmigration ever!!! He and his San Franfreakshow virtue warriors are literally KILLING CALIFORNIA!!!
He must be stopped…
http://www.recallgavin2020.com
Well said. And, the cost of living is still extraordinary, and will no doubt continue to be until there’s a change in CA taxes and policies (that’ll happen, ugh!). Even though rents have decreased slightly, it’s had -0- impact because rents dropped from absurd to ridiculous, and remain unaffordable for the average person or family. Add to that the loss of jobs not only from big companies leaving, but also small businesses closing shop – both for the same reasons; highest taxes in the country and death by policy strangulation. Then there’s the not talked about increases in utilities across the board, spikes in cost of food and staples, etc. right down to bridge tolls. All of this aside (which is how Pelosi and family/Newson want to keep it), the Bay Area has lost is charm. You have a 1 in 140 chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime in you live in the SF Bay Area – think about that. The divorce rate in California in10% higher than the national average. Homelessness (CA’s biggest industry) is up by as much as 47% in some Bay Area cities, and I can’t image what’s going to happen when San Francisco boots out the 23,000 people it housed because of the pandemic. Drug use/overdoses are at an all time high and the resulting death rates have far exceeded any COVID statistic anywhere in the State. Sadly, what was once a unique, thriving culture residing in cities filled with amazing eateries, mom & pop shops, the arts, plays, concerts, flower shops and boutiques of every kind, etc. has gone up in flames (some quite literally), and all that remains is glaring social division, fear, and animosity spurned on and encouraged at a levels not seen since the days of Joseph Goebbels/the German Third Reich by every 2-bit media outlet and mainstream propaganda machine in the country – in lockstep with Google/YoutTube, Twitter, and 99% of Hollywood and the music industry. If you think this is anything less than intended you’re foolish – unfortunately it’s too late anyway. People have been distracted by design for far too long and the majority of our power was put in the hands of the most corrupt quite some time ago. Nothing less than an act of God will restore this once great State.
I am a California born as raised. I love what California was and despise what it has turned into. We are ruled by abject politicians empowered by corruption. California must completely fail to change.
You want to know why businesses and people are fleeing the Golden State? Check out my dreary, updated, annotated fact sheet — comparing CA with the other states on 35 economic criteria.
http://www.TinyURL.com/CA-vs-other-states
Notice how Oracle avoids to say why they are REALLY leaving CA. To do so would draw the ire (and perhaps by boycott) by progressives and their institutions (including the CA state government!).
From a BUSINESS standpoint, departing companies have little to gain and much to lose by telling the truth.
I moved away from my native California over 16 years ago and have no regrets. I visited Southern California last week and am even more happy I don’t live there.
The geniuses in Sacramento said ‘F’ Oracle.