Business is business, and Bezos has been the master at getting Amazon the best deals. I find it hard to believe Amazon was chased off by a couple of complaining folks. I gotta believe a better deal presented itself and Amazon used AOC's (and others, she's just he biggest name in the news to complain) whining as a way out.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

I doubt it. The statement says they’ll stop looking for now. I think it’s more likely that the employees would be harassed nonstop by the lefties and unionistas. If I were a CEO facing that decision, that would be my reasoning. Why go into a hostile environment when you can either sit tight or find a welcoming place to build out a large employee base?

Even at the little tech startup I work for in SoCal we get protestors outside with ‘Shame on You (company name)’ if any work is done at the facility by non union workers. We don’t even own the building.

Amazon don’t need the hassle.

I think they will look to expand their footprint in VA & TN. Those plans are in a preliminary design and could be adjusted. Just pop one more building into the mix at both locations and don't call it HQ2 (which never really made any sense)

I never thought that a union town would be a good place for them. In many ways I think this was good fortune for Amazon.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

there goes the real estate speculators

The backlash was of their own making right? I mean it was clear once they chose VA and NYC (probably the most obvious choices from the onset) that their main purpose was to get cities to one up each other on tax breaks, etc. rather than their stated goal of searching for a new city to invest and grow in. Google, Apple and others have been building campuses in other cities with far less public spectacle. Had Amazon simply stated they were building out a facility in NYC, I bet they would have been received much more warmly.

It's interesting you say that because there was a rumor floating around the RTP area that Amazon might be looking to buy a certain company because of its analytical software and campus.

Could be. They could’ve worked the incentives quietly as well. I have friends who are CEOs of up and comers like LegalZoom who departed California for Texas before a big expansion of their workforce and conducted their process in private.

OTOH, Amazon may have wanted to test the reaction they might face locally and this was the best (maybe only) way to do so.

Yes!! We are very happy in Nashville. Especially those of us who live in walking/biking distance of the Amazon campus. If someone wants to buy my house for more than 2x I paid for it, I'll sell.

I just talked to the head of our office today. Companies here are nervous about them coming and trying to snipe employees.

clm: Did you see that Amazon is not going to NYC? Maybe they will add more jobs here.

HOO: Yes, grumble grumble

clm: I wonder if anyone went to the "Amazon Meet & Greet and Hear All About Us" event last week at the Ryman Auditorium? (Which included music and other entertainment, including Brad Paisley).

HOO: And on the coldest night of the year. I can't believe what a show they put on. grumble grumble

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

SAS I would assume.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Bingo.

The deal actually did make some sense from all parties point of view. If I were the founder, who does not want to take the company public, and facing a massive estate tax problem, selling or swapping shares might resolve the problem. If I were Amazon, the campus and land are there.

They went on a hiring spree durring shutdown here in VA. A real brain drain from some of the top government cyber and cloud experts.

NYC bailed on Amazon.

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“Read the transcript.”

Do they bring a giant inflatable rat?

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“Read the transcript.”

//Do they bring a giant inflatable rat? //

Nah, just a big sign and a dozen unmotivated individuals who stand around, take breaks every 30 minutes, argue about who should hold the sign, take long lunches and leave 40 minutes early if nobody is watching. Then, rumor has it, they either claim overtime or a work related injury from standing around so much and get long term disability. I wonder where they find such people?

Ehh, Amazon is making a big push. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't 10,000 Amazon employees in NYC in a few years anyway. So NYC will come out ahead.

This whole HQ2 thing was silly, it was obvious from the start that it would go to NYC area or DC area. Amazon wanted specific things, it was pretty silly for those areas to offer Amazon anything.

Yeah, those grapes can get pretty sour.

It was always a bad deal for NYC. Amazon was probably hoping to come to NYC. They were probably doing the whole dog and pony show to squeeze NY and at the same time squeeze Seattle. The Governor and the Mayor made a lousy deal behind closed doors giving away everything to Amazon. Had they told Amazon that they were welcome in NYC and this is what it costs, they would have still got the same outcome.

And, don't give AOC the credit for this. She came in late in the game. It was the local city and state representatives and the people of Long Island City who started complaining that this was a crappy deal.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Shortsighted liberal idiots led by AOC. Her first fail. Of many.

MABA! - Make Alexandrea a Bartender Again!

As I wrote above, AOC had very little to do with this. And the failure is on Amazon's part. They wanted an office in NYC on the cheep and they wanted to squeeze Seattle for more tax concessions. So they went on a nation wide sales junket acting like all those towns were in the mix. Their pitch was that they would bring 25,000 jobs that paid up to 150 thousand. Then when they got what they wanted, a NYC office with huge tax abatements, they changed their tune. Well, it's only about 5000 jobs for maybe 100,000. I've got news for Amazon; $100,000 per year isn't so great in NYC that they should be giving the store away for it.

Maybe next year Amazon can try again and try to be a more friendly neighbor. Maybe offer to build a new subway station near their site. Offer to work on some infrastructure in LIC, if they try to go there again. Maybe just offer to pay their fair share and be a good neighbor.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Tennessee: plus a non union state; no state income taxes (to attract out of state workforce talent; as a recruiter this is a BIG deal); While property values are skyrocketing there, property taxes are still reasonable; Nashville has to be in the top 5 fastest growing cities; investment in their airport;

No pink?

I thought conservatives were all about the "small business America" that "runs this country and makes it great!"?

What happened to that? Instead tax freebies to multi-billion dollar companies? Why not take that HANDOUT and give it to the local guys and gals instead that are making things happen? Ehhh?

Why such a favoritism to big business?

The way I read this, you want to screw small business America by giving HANDOUTS to rich corporations.

I thought conservatives didn't like handouts? I'm so confused. Something about anti-welfare and strapping on some boots and getting to work.

But welfare for rich corporations is OK.

has there been anyone reporting on the exact nature of the tax incentive (is it a deduction, an annual waiver of any corporate taxes generated, or tax credit paid whether or not there's any accounting credit)? What of the nature of how many jobs are to be created as a function of time (and the nature of these jobs)?

NYC has a lot of community activists or community organizers or whatever, so they're used to this sort of give-and-take in demanding more neighborhood input into the process than is common elsewhere. Daniel Howes, business writer at the Detroit News makes a good observation here:

"Amazon promised New York's Long Island City in Queens a piece of a $5 billion investment to create 25,000 jobs paying an average of more than $100,000 a year, an economic game-changer for just about any city. All New York had to do was offer a measly $3 billion in taxpayer-backed incentives and shut up about community-benefits deals and unions.

In return, they'd get the prospect of steadily rising property values, more congestion and yet more demands of obeisance to a corporate giant slowly choking retailing as we know it even while demanding community payouts. Bad optics don't begin to describe Amazon here, the latest Master of the Universe to feel the wrath of the little people."

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."