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Originally Posted by Atlanta3000
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When you are a publicly traded company almost valued at $1 Trillion and $140 Billion a year in revenue, you are probably more concerned about more quantifiable metrics: cost of doing business, location, population, infrastructure, supply chain and STEM candidates. I don't think "Buzz" and/or ability to influence a city's development will be <or> should be a driving factor. Remember, this is not Jeff Bezos' company - it is owned by the shareholders.
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Just because they're a large publicly traded company doesn't mean their strategy is based purely on "business" decisions. Take Facebook's recent announcement to police fake news in their content... the side effect of that decision is that FB is now effectively a censor for media (press). Since the media is often considered our 4th branch of government, this puts them in a very unique position as a "tech" company.
Amazon is getting large enough that anti-trust issues are starting to crop up. Why wouldn't political influence in state commerce laws play a factor in their choice? If they're smart, they're going to choose a city for what kind of company they envision becoming in the next 50 years, not for what they're doing now.
Like it or not, cities are somewhat "branded" by public perception... A company that bases their company in that city will also absorb some of that city's brand as well. So yes "buzz" directly affects the marketability of a company, which makes it a business decision.