(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
San Francisco authorities reacted to the news that tech giant X/Twitter will move its headquarters out of the city under the direction of its owner. Elon Musk.
For a decade, the company called downtown San Francisco home in the Bay Area and was considered the flagship of the city’s tech start-up culture. However, the billionaire plans to move the last of his San Francisco-based employees to his offices in Palo Alto and San Jose due to various disputes and complaints about the city’s business environment and politics.
The company’s new headquarters will be located in Texas – the center of Musk’s aerospace and electric car activities. According to The New York TimesHowever, city officials are not sad about X’s departure because of the changes that have been made at the company in recent years.
“I share the view of most San Francisco residents that it is good that we get rid of them,” said the city attorney David ChiuIn 2012, Chiu supported the tax break that prompted Twitter to locate downtown.
In addition, the city’s chief economist said Ted Eganclaimed that X’s departure from the city would have little impact because the company had shrunk so much.
“In many ways, they were already gone,” he added. The 2022 Covid-19 pandemic and Musk’s takeover of the company and subsequent layoffs left the company’s headquarters nearly empty.
About NYT:
Musk, who has clashed with state regulators over lockdowns during the pandemic and has become increasingly embroiled in right-wing politics, recently hinted that he no longer likes San Francisco. In July, he posted online that he was stuck in the company’s garage “because a gang was doing drugs on the street and wouldn’t move!”
Musk said last month he would move X’s headquarters to Austin, Texas, after California passed a law banning school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents if their children change their gender identity. He also blamed San Francisco’s gross receipts tax, which taxes local businesses for transactions that take place outside city limits.
—
Do you have a tip we should know? [email protected]
