Oracle Moves Corporate Headquarters to Austin, Texas -- 3rd Update
December 11 2020 - 7:13PM
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 company and its founder and chairman, Larry Ellison, are
pillars of the Bay Area. Oracle's name adorns the stadium home of
pro baseball's San Francisco Giants. Mr. Ellison is known for his
lavish homes in the region.
Oracle, which was founded in Santa Clara, Calif., in 1977, most
recently had its headquarters up the road in Redwood City. The
software giant and Silicon Valley stalwart said the relocation was
part of an effort to have a more flexible approach to its
workforce.
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, at times, have taken
issue with what they regard as the region's liberal politics. Two
prominent conservative venture capitalists, Peter Thiel and Keith
Rabois, have cited what they see as Silicon Valley's political
leanings as reasons to relocate.
Mr. Ellison earlier this year threw a fundraiser at his house
for President Trump, and Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz worked
on the executive committee for the Trump transition team in
2016.
Greg Abbott, Texas' 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.
California's tax regime has its share of critics. Its
personal-income tax tops out at 13.3% for amounts over $1 million a
year, the highest in the nation. Capital gains are taxed at a
similar rate.
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.
The decision by Oracle to facilitate greater flexibility for
employees is another signal that the trend toward more remote
working brought on by the pandemic could outlast the health
crisis.
The push for flexibility has meant the addition of corporate
jobs and remote workers in Texas, with its lower costs. Its capital
Austin, in particular, has been able to attract businesses because
of the relatively high level of skilled workers in a town that is
home to the University of Texas. The area also has actively courted
outside companies, offering local tax incentives to companies such
as Tesla.
Since its founding, Oracle grew into one of the biggest software
providers. But the company 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 without the kind of top-line gains some
competitors have seen. Oracle on Thursday posted a 2% quarterly
sales increase from a year earlier. On a call with analysts, Mr.
Ellison blamed constrained capacity within its cloud infrastructure
for not growing more quickly.
The company declined to comment on its relocation beyond its
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 18:58 ET (23:58 GMT)
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