Oracle Moves Corporate Headquarters to Austin, Texas -- 2nd Update
December 11 2020 - 6:09PM
Dow Jones News
By Aaron Tilley
Oracle Corp. said it has changed its corporate headquarters to
Austin, Texas, the latest high-profile defection from Silicon
Valley.
The database company and a Silicon Valley stalwart said the move
was part of a wider effort to have a "more flexible employee work
location policy."
Oracle was founded in Santa Clara, Calif. In 1977 and most
recently it had its up the road in headquarters in Redwood
City.
The company and its founder and chairman, Larry Ellison, are
pillars of the Bay Area. Oracle's name adorns the stadium home to
the San Francisco Giants. Mr. Ellison is known for his lavish homes
in the region.
Oracle joins others in leaving the region that for decades has
been synonymous with America's tech industry.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. earlier this month said it was
moving its headquarters to the Houston area.
Palantir Technologies Inc., founded in the Bay Area in 2003,
moved its headquarters to Denver this year. Palantir co-founder Joe
Lonsdale, a venture capitalist, moved to Austin this year.
Many of the executives that are turning their back on Silicon
Valley share conservative political views and have, at times, taken
issue with what they view as the region's political leanings. Two
prominent conservative venture capitalists, Peter Thiel and Keith
Rabois, have cited what they see as Silicon Valley's liberal
politics as reasons to relocate
Mr. Ellison earlier this year threw a fundraiser at his house
for President Trump. Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz also worked
on the executive committee for the Trump transition team in
2016.
Texas's Republican governor cheered the Oracle news, tweeting
"Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity." The
state doesn't collect state income or capital-gains tax for
individuals.
This week Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he had moved
himself to Texas. The electric-car maker is building a new plant in
Austin and Mr. Musk's rocket company, Space Exploration
Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, has operations in South Texas. Mr.
Ellison sits on Tesla's board.
Oracle already has a presence in Austin. In 2015, the company
announced plans to build a new corporate campus in the city. It
also bought Austin-based software company StackEngine Inc. in 2015.
The Austin campus opened in 2018 and features apartments and
restaurants on site.
Since its founding, the company grew into one of the biggest
software providers. But the business was slow to adapt to the
emerging field of cloud computing that has lifted the fortunes of
rivals such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.
Oracle has now pivoted to pursue cloud growth, but not enjoyed
the kind of topline gains some competitors have seen. Oracle on
Thursday posted a 2% quarterly sales increase from the year-prior.
On a call with analysts, Mr. Ellison blamed constrained capacity on
its cloud infrastructure for not growing more quickly.
The company declined to comment beyond the statement or say
whether Mr. Ellison himself was moving. .
"Many of our employees can choose their office location as well
as continue to work from home part time or all of the time," the
company said. "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."
Write to Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 11, 2020 17:54 ET (22:54 GMT)
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