Oracle Moving HQ to Austin • Hacker News Board

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#141

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #130

lotsofpulp wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extra 20% is the bidding war. If they thought there was a reasonable chance they would be able to purchase without the 20%, they would.

The term "bidding war" doesn't typically apply to initial offers.

The concept of bidding war includes having to pay more than someone else to obtain something. If a market is so hot that the seller has no reason to even wait for competing offers, then the initial offer has to be high enough to make it worth their while. The initial is your bid, and because you predict other buyers will be able to satisfy the seller's demands, you bid defensively by bidding extra.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#142

Post by ardit33 » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

vzaliva wrote: post #97

dragonwriter wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drawing experienced personnel from established firms has, as I understand it, long been a big driver for startups in the region. While some established firms leaving isn’t a problem, if it becomes too common, its a problem for entrepreneurship. OTOH, a few established firms with large campuses leaving also means a lot of space without the usual problems involved available for other established firms that get into lot…

Have you ever tried to "draw" somebody who spent last 20 years working for HP into startup? In most cases these people are not flexible enough, stuck in a ways things have been done at their previous job and having difficulty adjusting. I recall hiring one such engineer for then 5 person startup and he asked who will be the IT guy to set up his computer! Disclaimer: of course there are exceptions.

I worked with folks that worked and both HP and Oracle... As large companies, they have a large contigent of H-1Bs, some of which are very good engineers, who prefer to stay in a large company (and put up with it) until they get their green card...

after they get their green card, they fan out to smaller companies/startups....

so, yeah, it is a loss.... (albeit small) for the bay area

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#143

Post by rayiner » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

warmfuzzykitten wrote: post #119

1helloworld1 wrote: post #18

Shouldn't the republican party be worried? If the trend continues and a lot of companies move from California to Texas bringing along a lot of liberal employees with them, won't that tip the already narrowing margin towards the democratic party?

It won't be a problem for local republican politicians as long as people keep moving to already democratic locations like Austin, whose impact has already been gerrymandered away. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/13/texas-redistricting-...

Gerrymandering makes districts extremely sensitive to population changes. The country was heavily gerrymandered by Democrats until the 1990s, and Republicans managed to flip it around within the decade: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Po...

The chart shows the House popular vote compared to the number of House seats. When Biden entered Congress, Democrats were winning 10 percentage points more of House seats than their share of the popular vote. But those districts were extremely sensitive to fluctuations and after redistricting based on the 1990 census many flipped rapidly.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#144

Post by vzaliva » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

bihla wrote: post #137

vzaliva wrote: post #80

Some people lament the decline of Silicon Vally companies like Tesla and Oracle moving out. I argue it could be a good thing. These giant enterprises are not really a pinnacle of entrepreneurship and innovation anymore. Let them move elsewhere and keep the Bay Area nurturing new entrepreneurs and startups. It is huge cubicle farms vs. garages and coworking places kind of distinction.

Tesla and Oracle have no similarity in this regard.

HP?

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#145

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

908B64B197 wrote: post #88

davidw wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about how it plays out... everywhere. I live in what's being called a "Zoom town", with lots of remote workers who seem to want a smaller town with more outdoor access (Bend, Oregon if you're curious). House prices are going through the roof. But Bend was already hot, and on people's radar. Yesterday I saw an article about housing heating up in Baker City Oregon. This is a small town of 10K people that is…

If I was mayor of a small town I would be rolling out fiber like there is no tomorrow and zoning everything to allow for detached units like these [0]. Interests rates are at their lowest and the rise in property value should more than pay for it. [0] https://www.dwell.com/article/prefab-home-office-accessory-d...

no idea why but that page is essentially unreadable here on both firefox 83.0 and chrome. I do use ublock origin and 68k lines in /etc/hosts to block stuff, but still ...

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#146

Post by ralph84 » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

avl999 wrote: post #100

tidepod12 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Californians in LA/SF are used to paying $800k for a house, and the Cali salaries are high enough to support it. A Texan in Dallas/Austin is used to paying $250k for that same house, and has a relatively lower salary to match. The Californians, after years of having higher salary, more savings, and a job that lets them move, goes to Texas and offers $400k for that same house. The Californian thinks it's a great deal,…

> The Californians, after years of having higher salary, more savings, and a job that lets them move, goes to Texas and offers $400k for that same house. The Californian thinks it's a great deal, because they get the same size house they previously lived in for only half the price! And the seller thinks it's great, because he now suddenly gets a huge premium on his previously-valued-at-$250k-house. All of the real es…

Only a very small fraction of the housing supply is up for sale at any given point in time. Prices are set at the margin.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#147

Post by DataSceince123 » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

Its ridiculous how these companies took advantage of california, paid nearly no taxes, then left to texas leaving california in massive debt !

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#148

Post by mehrzad » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #57

rainyMammoth wrote: post #10

How long before all the Californians make Austin the exact same place they fled from?

People show up in new area because its better than where they left and decide to vote for the same politicians that screwed up their old area. Happens all the time as logic is hard. or to put it like one of the folks here: "you peed in your pool and moved to ours, don't do that again"

The high cost of living in California has almost nothing to do with liberal politics or whatever you're trying to insinuate.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#149

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

tidepod12 wrote: post #117

lotsofpulp wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like we're saying the same thing, except that I am claiming it is unremarkable, or trivial. People with more resources have been outbidding people with fewer resources since forever, and whether they're from China or California or Kansas or the other side of town is irrelevant.

If you think discussing the effects that people moving from CA to Texas has is irrelevant when we are literally in a thread specifically about the effects of people moving from CA to Texas, I dunno what to tell you.

That is true, I did lose sight of that. I think the more interesting statement would be California is exporting lots of high income / net worth people, which would prompt the questions of what causes CA to have lots of high income / net worth people, and what causes them to leave?

E.g. Are CA's policies more conducive to wealth creation, and then are people taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities elsewhere to guard that wealth?

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#150

Post by adventured » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

baggy_trough wrote: post #21

g42gregory wrote: post #12

I think this is a major news for Silicon Valley. Schwab, HPE, now Oracle. I hope that this would give somebody in California Legislature a pause.

Considering that one of the most prominent legislators literally told Elon Musk to get fucked on Twitter, I doubt anyone is listening.

Fortunately the Bay Area already has a billboard for their future from which they can borrow:

https://i.imgur.com/OTFSSFF.png

https://www.historylink.org/File/1287

Tech business will be persistently pulled out of the Bay Area and into other states, Europe is about to see a large tech boom (courtesy of US venture capital) that will considerably harm the dominance that Silicon Valley has enjoyed the past several decades, combined with China continuing to make inroads in most aspects of tech. It's all pointing south for Silicon Valley, it's going to be a very ugly decade there.