Oracle Corp. announced this afternoon (Dec. 11) that it is moving its headquarters from Redwood City to Austin, Texas, and let many employees choose their office locations and decide whether to work from home.
Oracle employs 6,700 people in Redwood City, 18% of the city’s workforce.
This follows similar moves by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Palantir, McKesson and Schwab.
“We are watching the unraveling on one of the world’s mightiest economies and the consequences will be devastating,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group. “California for too long has willfully ignored our awful business climate, even as we’ve enjoyed incredible success and prosperity. The COVID pandemic is now exposing California’s deep vulnerabilities as employers realize they have other, better choices of where to locate their business. We can’t afford to dither any longer or California will permanently lose hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs to states like Texas that place value on business and investment.”
Oracle, which makes business software, said it will keep major hubs at its current home in Redwood Shores, and other locations.
“We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work,” the company said in a regulatory filing.
The move comes the same week that Tesla founder Elon Musk announced that he has moved to Austin. Musk had criticized California officials for restrictions designed to limit the coronavirus pandemic.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott quickly boasted about Oracle’s decision.
“Oracle just announced they have moved their headquarters to Austin,” Abbott tweeted. “Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity. We will continue to attract the very best.”
Texas has long targeted companies in high-cost California for relocation. This month, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it will move to the Houston area and build a campus with two five-story buildings by 2022. In 2018, Toyota shifted its U.S. headquarters from Southern California, to Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb.
In its most recent fiscal year, which ended May 31, Oracle reported earnings of $10.1 billion on revenue of about $39 billion. The company was founded in Santa Clara in 1977.
Goodbye Larry Ellison. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt.
Maybe Ellison and Musk can hang out together in Austin?
I like Austin. It’s a fun college and music town. But have you seen the roaches they have there? Gigantic. When one of them comes marching down the sidewalk, you get out of it’s way, and not the other way around.
What’s two more giant roaches in Austin, anyway?
Did you know that an awful lot of those roaches fly? It couldn’t be much more horrifying.
What are they going to do with those round buildings in Redwood Shores where the animal park used to be? They’re very distinctive but I don’t think any corporation is going to want to use them as their headquarters because they’ll remind everybody of Oracle and Larry Ellison. And what will become of the charter high school Oracle started? I guess they’re going to be on their own.