Oracle Moves Corporate Headquarters to Austin, Texas -- 2nd Update

By Aaron Tilley 

Oracle Corp. said it has changed its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas, the latest high-profile defection from Silicon Valley.

The database company and a Silicon Valley stalwart said the move was part of a wider effort to have a "more flexible employee work location policy."

Oracle was founded in Santa Clara, Calif. In 1977 and most recently it had its up the road in headquarters in Redwood City.

The company and its founder and chairman, Larry Ellison, are pillars of the Bay Area. Oracle's name adorns the stadium home to the San Francisco Giants. Mr. Ellison is known for his lavish homes in the region.

Oracle joins others in leaving the region that for decades has been synonymous with America's tech industry.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. earlier this month said it was moving its headquarters to the Houston area.

Palantir Technologies Inc., founded in the Bay Area in 2003, moved its headquarters to Denver this year. Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, a venture capitalist, moved to Austin this year.

Many of the executives that are turning their back on Silicon Valley share conservative political views and have, at times, taken issue with what they view as the region's political leanings. Two prominent conservative venture capitalists, Peter Thiel and Keith Rabois, have cited what they see as Silicon Valley's liberal politics as reasons to relocate

Mr. Ellison earlier this year threw a fundraiser at his house for President Trump. Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz also worked on the executive committee for the Trump transition team in 2016.

Texas's Republican governor cheered the Oracle news, tweeting "Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity." The state doesn't collect state income or capital-gains tax for individuals.

This week Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he had moved himself to Texas. The electric-car maker is building a new plant in Austin and Mr. Musk's rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, has operations in South Texas. Mr. Ellison sits on Tesla's board.

Oracle already has a presence in Austin. In 2015, the company announced plans to build a new corporate campus in the city. It also bought Austin-based software company StackEngine Inc. in 2015. The Austin campus opened in 2018 and features apartments and restaurants on site.

Since its founding, the company grew into one of the biggest software providers. But the business was slow to adapt to the emerging field of cloud computing that has lifted the fortunes of rivals such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.

Oracle has now pivoted to pursue cloud growth, but not enjoyed the kind of topline gains some competitors have seen. Oracle on Thursday posted a 2% quarterly sales increase from the year-prior. On a call with analysts, Mr. Ellison blamed constrained capacity on its cloud infrastructure for not growing more quickly.

The company declined to comment beyond the statement or say whether Mr. Ellison himself was moving. .

"Many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all of the time," the company said. "We will continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world, including those in the United States such as Redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, among others, and we expect to add other locations over time."

Write to Aaron Tilley at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2020 17:54 ET (22:54 GMT)

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