Tech giant Oracle Corp. said Friday it will move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, and let employees choose their office locations and decide whether to work from home.
The business software maker said it will keep major hubs at its current home in Redwood City, California, 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.
‘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 the time.’
The move comes the same week that Tesla founder Elon Musk announced that he has moved to Texas and after Hewlett Packard Enterprise also announced a move to the state earlier this month.
Tech giant Oracle Corp. said Friday it will move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, joining recent moves to the Lone Star State by Tesla’s Elon Musk and HP
Musk had criticized California officials for restrictions designed to limit the coronavirus pandemic.
Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison is the second-largest individual shareholder in Tesla – behind Musk – and sits on the company’s board.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott quickly boasted about Oracle’s decision.
‘Oracle just announced they have moved their headquarters to Austin,’ Abbott tweeted.
Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison, pictured above, is also the second-largest individual shareholder in Tesla
‘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.
And Austin, in particular, has been attracting tech firms as home to the South by Southwest Festival, which has an ‘interactive’ portion devoted to internet innovations.
This month, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, one of the early companies in Silicon Valley, said it will move to the Houston area and build a campus with two five-story buildings by 2022.
‘HPE’s largest U.S. employment hub, Houston is an attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent, and is where the company is currently constructing a state-of-the-art new campus,’ the company said in a statement.
‘The Bay Area will continue to be a strategic hub for HPE innovation, and the company will consolidate a number of sites in the Bay Area to its San Jose campus.
‘No layoffs are associated with this move.’
The Oracle move comes the same week that Tesla (pictured right) founder Elon Musk announced that he has moved to Austin after a run-in with California officials and after Hewlett Packard Enterprise (pictured left) also announced a move to Texas earlier this month
Texas Governor Greg Abbott quickly boasted about Oracle’s decision on Twitter, pictured
And, entrepreneur Elon Musk also confirmed his move to Texas this week.
The Tesla co-founder and chief executive left California after a heated squabble earlier this year with local authorities, who ordered one of his auto factories closed to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Musk lashed out at California leaders including Gov. Newsom and Alameda County officials when shutdowns stopped production at his company’s factories in Fremont.
Musk defied the health order and reopened early, slamming the regulations as ‘fascist’ during a shocking April earnings call saying, ‘Give people back their goddamn freedom.’
After this he is reported to have begun cozying up to Gov. Abbott.
Tesla co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk, pictured above, left California after a heated squabble earlier this year with local authorities, who ordered one of his auto factories closed to stop the spread of COVID
Texas also offers a lower cost of living and no state income tax, both of which may appeal Oracle as well as South Africa-born Musk, 49, who overtook Bill Gates to become the world’s second-wealthiest person last month as Tesla stock reached ever-greater heights.
Musk justified the move by saying he needed to be closer to two of his biggest projects: the development of rockets by his company SpaceX in the southern part of the state, and construction of a Tesla automobile plant near state capital Austin.’
Yet he added in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that California had also become ‘complacent’ when it comes to innovation.
‘They do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled, and then they don’t win the championship anymore,’ he told the publication.
Musk claimed that California – and, in particular, Silicon Valley – ‘has been winning for a long time’.
‘I think they’re taking it [winning] for granted a little bit,’ he stated.
For the time being, both Tesla and SpaceX remain headquartered in California. It is unclear whether Musk will officially move both businesses to Texas at a later date.
Musk did not reveal whereabouts in the Lone Star State he has moved to. It’s also unclear whether he will purchase any property there, given that he stated earlier this year that he wants to rid himself of possessions and is only interesting in renting.
Over the summer, the Musk Foundation officially consolidated its headquarters in Austin.
However, Musk is also known to spend time in Boca Chica, on the southeast coast of the state, where there is a SpaceX facility.
In 2018, Toyota also shifted its U.S. headquarters from Southern California, to Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb.
Oracle’s stocks climbed dramatically on Friday morning, they continued to climb upward after the relocation announcement in the afternoon, as pictured above
In its most recent fiscal year, which ended May 31, Oracle reported earnings of $10.1 billion on revenue of about $39 billion. Its stocks have risen steadily throughout the year
In its most recent fiscal year, which ended May 31, Oracle reported earnings of $10.1 billion on revenue of about $39 billion.
After its stocks climbed dramatically on Friday morning, they continued to climb upward after the relocation announcement in the afternoon.
The company was founded in Santa Clara, California, in 1977 and as of May 31, employed about 135,000 people.
Oracle has offices in an array of US cities, including Austin.
Word of Oracle’s move comes as internet firms that have been letting workers do their jobs remotely due to the pandemic embrace the practice, which frees them to hire people who live far from offices and leaves companies less tethered to Silicon Valley campuses.