Oracle moves headquarters to Texas, joining Silicon Valley exodus

Oracle Corp. stated it has moved its headquarters to Texas, from its house state of California to provide workers extra flexibility on the place they do their jobs.

The transfer to Austin from Redwood City “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,” Oracle stated Friday in a regulatory submitting. The firm will proceed “to support” its different US workplace areas in Santa Monica, California, Seattle, Denver, Orlando, and Burlington, Massachusetts, in accordance with the submitting.

The unfold of the coronavirus has prompted many firms to provide staffers versatile preparations, together with the flexibility to make money working from home. The software program maker stated it had 135,000 workers as of the top of May. Some firms, executives and workers are ditching California due to issues over the state’s tax charges and excessive value of residing, in addition to arduous commutes in some locales.

Oracle’s shift of assets away from California dates no less than to 2018, led by Chairman Larry Ellison and the late co-Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd. That 12 months, Oracle opened a campus in Austin, that includes an on-site residence constructing for workers, in an effort to recruit a youthful and more cost effective workforce. The campus might finally host 10,000 staffers, Oracle stated on the time.

Started in 1977, Oracle has been a foundational firm in Silicon Valley and its silver-blue cylindrical buildings in Redwood City, seen from US Highway 101, are the uncommon landmark within the in any other case sprawling area. It follows different tech innovators in de-emphasizing their California roots. Server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. stated December 1 that it could transfer headquarters to a Houston suburb, the place it’s constructing a brand new campus. Palantir Technologies Inc. has relocated to Denver this 12 months, from Palo Alto, California.

Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk stated this week that he’s moved to Texas to concentrate on large initiatives beneath approach for Tesla in addition to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which he additionally runs. He beforehand moved his non-public basis, which was based mostly in California, to Austin. Moving carries monumental tax implications for top internet value people. Texas has no private revenue tax, whereas California imposes the very best private revenue levies within the nation on its richest residents.