Software Giant Oracle To Move HQ To Austin From California

AUSTIN, TX — Software giant Oracle on Friday confirmed it is moving its corporate headquarters from California's Silicon Valley to Austin.

“Oracle is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its corporate headquarters from Redwood City, California, to Austin, Texas," the company told Bloomberg News, the first to report the news, in a statement shared by other media outlets. "We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work.”

Gov. Greg Abbott lauded the move on Twitter: "Oracle just announced they have moved their headquarters to Austin," he wrote. "Texas is truly the land of business, jobs and opportunity. We will continue to attract the very best."

In another tweet, the governor suggested the development was just another day at the office for Texas: Another day, another global giant moving to Texas. Welcome to the Lone Star State, Oracle HQ! We are proud to welcome your headquarters to our capital city."

The company offered no further details, including a timeline for the move, the number of jobs the move would create in Austin or a location of the headquarters campus.

In a subsequent statement issued from his office, Abbott credited the state's business-friendly climate for spurring the software giant's relocation: “Oracle is a global technology giant with an already strong presence here in Texas, and we are proud to welcome its headquarters to Austin," the governor wrote. "While some states are driving away businesses with high taxes and heavy-handed regulations, we continue to see a tidal wave of companies like Oracle moving to Texas thanks to our friendly business climate, low taxes, and the best workforce in the nation."

Abbott praised his state's business climate amid an exodus of California firms relocating to Texas: "Most important of all, these companies are looking for a home where they have the freedom to grow their business and better serve their employees and customers, and when it comes to economic prosperity, there is no place like the Lone Star State.”

For his part, Austin Mayor Steve Adler zeroed in on the capital city's myriad dynamics that help lure industry as a big reason for Oracle's move. "Welcome home, Oracle!" the mayor wrote on Twitter. "Austin yet again contributing to economic development in Texas."

Oracle has made past overtures in illustrating its interest in Austin expansion. Five years ago this month, the company announced plans for local expansion in releasing plans to build a 560,000-square-foot corporate campus situated on 27 acres of land overlooking picturesque vistas fronting Lady Bird Lake, just east of the downtown Austin as reported by Patch at the time.

The software giant bought the land from Austin-based Cypress Real Estate Advisors for an undisclosed amount, according to reports at the time. The software firm's prior expansion spurred the displacement of some 30 households — some with school-aged children — at the Lakeview Apartments that was later razed to accommodate the corporate expansion.

Oracle is the world's second-largest software company with some $39 billion in revenue this year. On the same day it announced its local expansion, Oracle reported better-than-expected quarterly results as its key cloud applications businesses continued to benefit from the shift to remote work. According to its quarterly statement, Oracle reported a revenue increase of nearly 2 percent to $9.80 billion while net income rose 5.7 percent to $2.44 billion for its fiscal year 2021 second quarter. The company reported earnings per share of $1.06, besting analysts' expectations of $1 per share.