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Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

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Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#201

Post by nemo44x »

syntaxing wrote: post #11

I'm super curious how this will WFH Covid-era will play out for the Bay Area. I think the question I haven't figured out is job mobility. Pre-covid, even if you lost your job here as an engineer, finding another company thats interesting with the right pay isn't too hard which is one of the best appeals of SV. I wonder how this will play out in terms of this dynamic.

Me too. In my opinion the Bay Area has nearly nothing going for it except the abundance of high paying jobs and all the effects of that line networking, visibility to early stage investors, etc. The weather is nice. Which is a lot. A whole lot. But if it becomes apparent you don’t need to be there to start a technology company (or rather there aren’t as many advantages) or to reliably find the best jobs due to the open location policy companies could move to, it begins to lose that.

NYC is still NYC for example. It will suffer for awhile but people will continue to want to be there because being there is different than anywhere else. It doesn’t rely on an industry or on locality of an industry. It will rise as it has many times before as a capital city of the world. The surrounding suburbs in NJ and CN are well served by trains which the Bay Area can’t really say.

The Bay Area is just another sprawl of highways, strip malls, and parking lots. You could be anywhere if it did t happen to be there.

I think there will remain a certain prestige in the Bay Area though. But maybe not a monopoly like today. Sort of like how Wall St. is more a legacy than an actual locality that matters in the finance world.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#202

Post by lscotte »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #138
dmode wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does labor law impact anything when everyone is WFH ? Also, do taxes really have anything to do with your HQ location ? All corporations are registered in Delaware.

AFAIK, WFH employees have CA tax obligations when the company HQ is in CA, even if they’re working from other states. So all non-CA employees have less of a tax burden as a result of the HQ relocation.

This is not correct. I work for a CA based company. I work from home in a different state which is my legal residence. I do not file or pay CA taxes.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#203

Post by devmunchies »

stickyricky wrote: post #47
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?

(This is all conjecture) Whether or not Texas "purpled" because of Trump or population dynamics is an open question in my mind. I think a person's political identity is mostly environmental rather than principled. Yes there are some beliefs which are ingrained in us but mostly those beliefs don't enter into the political arena much. Californians moving to Texas make it blue-er and themselves red-er. Who knows how thi…

>Californians moving to Texas make it blue-er and themselves red-er.

Not if people are just sitting in their home all day. They won't be influenced by their environment but will still vote the same. Dockerized voters.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#204

Post by toephu2 »

wavefunction wrote: post #87
TravelPiglet wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is public transit good in Austin?

Not really but a big transit bond just passed that intends to expand the light rail system, eventually linking the airport to downtown and downtown to more of the central area. There's going to be some sort of huge construction project on the interstate that bisects the town but the particulars have not yet been decided on that.

Will probably take 10+ years to build?

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#205

Post by toephu2 »

birdyrooster wrote: post #25
rainyMammoth wrote: post #10

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

Average high/low temperatures in the summer for Austin are: June. 92° / 72° July. 96° / 74° August 96° / 74° Average high/low temperatures in the summer for Cupertino are: June. 75° / 55° July. 76° / 58° August 76° / 58° Austin will never, ever be like Silicon Valley because of this. The freedom you get from cooler weather is great from an energy utilization stand point and for allowing safer and more desirable condi…

Not just temperature but also humidity, isn't Austin unbearably humid in the summer?

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#206

Post by testfoobar »

jeffbee wrote: post #127
birdyrooster wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average high/low temperatures in the summer for Austin are: June. 92° / 72° July. 96° / 74° August 96° / 74° Average high/low temperatures in the summer for Cupertino are: June. 75° / 55° July. 76° / 58° August 76° / 58° Austin will never, ever be like Silicon Valley because of this. The freedom you get from cooler weather is great from an energy utilization stand point and for allowing safer and more desirable condi…

Bay Area had 99 straight days of poison air in 2020 and there's no reason to expect 2021 to be any better, especially considering that so far the 2020-2021 water year has been the driest ever recorded in human history.

In the midst of the pandemic, it is easy to overlook California's yearly water supply. The snow-pack numbers this year do not bode well for next year.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#207

Post by dragonwriter »

stickyricky wrote: post #47
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?

(This is all conjecture) Whether or not Texas "purpled" because of Trump or population dynamics is an open question in my mind. I think a person's political identity is mostly environmental rather than principled. Yes there are some beliefs which are ingrained in us but mostly those beliefs don't enter into the political arena much. Californians moving to Texas make it blue-er and themselves red-er. Who knows how thi…

> Californians moving to Texas make it blue-er and themselves red-er.

That depends on the Californian. I don’t think Larry Ellison or Elon Musk moving to Texas make Texas bluer. It might make them redder though. Californians on average may be bluer than Texans, but the migration is a randomized sample of Californians.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#208

Post by skinnymuch »

adventured wrote: post #82
beagle3 wrote: post #42

Likely irrelevant, but reminded me of this[0]: """Basically, we’re moving because of William Whyte‘s rule: virtually all corporate relocations involve a move to a location which is closer to the CEO’s home than the old location. Whyte discovered this principle after an extensive study of Fortune 500 companies that left New York City for the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s""" Tesla will likely move its HQ to Texas foll…

It's particularly interesting given Ellison and Musk have become close in recent years, with Ellison buying a large chunk of Tesla and joining the board (now a $9.5 billion personal holding). Zero chance these moves weren't widely discussed between them over time.

That sounds like a big personal holding. But if he bought it in Early and mid 2019, then he probably spent under a billion for his stake. Which for him isn’t much.

1.5% of the company is still a solid portion. Especially if Musk ever needs to sell shares for some reason and needs an ally with substantial ownership to align with him for continued control

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#209

Post by xxpor »

sbeller wrote: post #194
tidepod12 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The supply of housing isn't a problem in Texas, but "supply and demand" isn't the end of the story. When two Texans want the same house, a bidding war is artificially capped (at, say $300k) because that's all the average Texan can afford. But when a Californian moves in with high net worth and a higher paying job, they can bid much higher, and they don't mind doing so (the mindset I have personally heard from most CA…

> I've personally seen several people be priced out of an area due to this. Ask a Californian about prop 13 ;-)

Which is the root cause of the majority of urban/suburban California's issues.

Texas won't become California, even if 100% of CA's population moves there, because they don't have the same pants on head dumb proposition system.

Re: Oracle Moving HQ to Austin

#210

Post by baskire »

dmode wrote: post #157
TimTheTinker wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, WFH employees have CA tax obligations when the company HQ is in CA, even if they’re working from other states. So all non-CA employees have less of a tax burden as a result of the HQ relocation.

I don't think this is true. Employees pay taxes based on residency requirement. So if you are not a resident of CA, you don't pay taxes, regardless of where your HQ is

If California can claim the work was done in or for California. They’ll tax it. If you work remote from Texas but hr says your desk is in California. You owe California taxes.
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