More Companies Are Joining 'Tech Exodus' From California

DEAD7

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More Companies Are Joining 'Tech Exodus' From California

NBC News writes that "while Silicon Valley is by no means ceasing to be the center of the technology industry," there's still an "undeniable migration" that's happening:

Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist, bought a house in Miami Beach in 2018. In late 2020, Jonathan Oringer, who founded Shutterstock and became an investor, moved to Miami, as did other notable venture capitalists, including Keith Rabois and David Blumberg. It's not just Miami experiencing this migration. Last month, Oracle, the tech giant, announced it is moving its corporate headquarters from Redwood City, California, to Austin, Texas. Other such moves include Palantir, which decamped for Denver, while Elon Musk said last month he had moved himself to Austin. Hewlett Packard Enterprise also announced last month it was moving its headquarters from San Jose, California, in favor of a Houston suburb...

It's significant enough that while the San Francisco Bay Area continues to gain tech workers, the rate of increase is down by over 35 percent — the single largest drop of any tracked metropolitan area — according to self-reported data tracked by LinkedIn. Experts following this migration predict these numbers may grow. "There's a mini-exodus of tech companies leaving the Valley, and I think that's going to accelerate in 2021," said Dan Ives, a financial analyst with Wedbush Securities. But the reasons many businesses are moving are more complex than people may think. Tax experts say companies aren't moving their corporate headquarters necessarily for business tax incentives. Instead, it may be a long-term play to help them pay workers relatively less where the cost of living is lower... "You're going to always have the vast majority of tech companies coming out of the Valley, and you can't create that anywhere else," Ives said. "But when you look at an Austin: It's creating a mini Silicon Valley at half the cost for an average employee..."

Tax experts suspect Oracle and its peers may over time phase out higher-paid employees in California in favor of lower-paid employees in Texas. These companies can also ease off giving employees raises because they are living somewhere with a lower cost of living. "Even though a lot of companies are saying they can let people work from anywhere, most are saying we're not going to cut salary, but we're going to slow the rate of increase of salary," said Brian Kropp, an analyst with the IT service management company Gartner. Kropp said he spoke with high-level representatives from several "Fortune 200 type companies" who are exploring moving their corporate headquarters. In short, shifting employees from California to Texas could represent long-term corporate cost savings, which means larger payouts for these companies' top executives.

"The compounding effect translates to a 3 or 5 percent margin that moves straight to profit," Kropp said...
 

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as long as california higher education remains the best they'll be a hub for innovation. all these other states will just be importing the same issues that comes with the success.
 

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Austin sees mass exodus of ex-Silicon Valley tech companies, here's why​

Is the big tech trend in Austin over?​

By Cristela JonesDec 9, 2023

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AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 15: Founder & CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg appears via video stream for the session 'Into the Metaverse: Creators, Commerce and Connection' during the 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals at the Austin Convention Center on March 15, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jim Bennett/WireImage)
Jim Bennett/WireImage

Austin's potential as a successor to Silicon Valleyis in jeopardy. Over the years, Austin has seen a huge migration of tech companies moving to the city, from billionaire owners of Twitter (X) to the largest search engine in the world. But many startups are now choosing to leave the capital city they once flocked to because of the rising cost of living, low funding, and lack of diversity, according to TechCrunch.

On Thursday, December 7, the cloud computing company VMWare announced it was laying off 577 employees in Austin as part of a nationwide job reduction to cut costs, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

TechCrunch is reporting that startup founders, like Techstars Managing Director Amos Schwartzfarb, are announcing their decisions to leave Austin's "lackluster" startup scene. This is only a few years removed from tech investors and startup founders bringing their businesses to Austin in droves, living it up with lower rent (compared to California and NYC), the young and "hip" population, and the beauty of no state income taxes.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, more tech companies chose to work from home, emptying their downtown offices for at-home desks. Layoffs also began to save money with the rumors of a nationwide recession and companies needing to scale back costs.

This year alone was full of tech layoffs. Indeed announced in March that it was letting go of 15% of its workforce after tech giants Google, Meta, and Amazon did the same.

In 2022, Meta abandoned plans to move into the biggest skyscraper in Austin, and Google froze plans to move into 35 floors of a different downtown building, despite paying rent to the developer, according to the Washington Post. TikTok also announced it was subleasing six floors in downtown Austin, but has yet to announce a move-in date, according to Inc.com.

In January, CEO Don Ward of Laundris, a B2B enterprise industrial software platform, announced he would be relocating his company to Tulsa because it reminded him "of where Austin was 10 years ago in terms of the tech ecosystem being built," according to Tulsa World.

Last month, startup unicorn Cart, an e-commerce business, announced it was moving its headquarters back to Houston after relocating to Austin in late 2021, according to TechCrunch.

Airlines have also responded by shifting their focus from Austin, with American Airlines cutting 21 routes from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The CEO of Austin's Technology Council told the Austin Business Journal in March, "We're not seeing a lot of pain yet in Austin," after the journal revealed a list of the largest tech companies in Austin not yet reporting a widespread loss.

If this is a growing trend, it begs the question. What will Austin have to do to remain the darling of the tech world?
 
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