Posted on 10/08/2018 8:05:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Thirteen months into the international derby that is the Amazon HQ2 selection process, it seems the end of the sweepstakes is near. What's happened? What have we learned? What's next?
It's been a dizzying year-plus for the giant online retailer. Amazon received 238 proposals last November from cities across North America, each wanting a crack at attracting upwards of 50,000 high-paying tech jobs that could send a local economy on an entirely different trajectory. Twenty finalists were announced last January, and Amazon began its due diligence in earnest.
With limited information reaching the general public, speculation on the selected metro area has been rampant. A visit by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to Washington, D.C., last month sparked discussion about the nation's capital being the possible winner. A second visit to Chicago by Amazon officials prompted a similar speculative reaction in the Windy City. Observers across the country are trying to read the tea leaves: a New York Times article last month noted that a visit to a Miami nightclub by Bezos was seen as a positive sign by the Miami Herald, and that the resignation of the dean of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh was viewed as a first step toward Amazon's move there. Expectations, and anxieties, have been sufficiently raised.
What is becoming clearer, however, is that most observers are building toward a consensus that the likely winner will be Washington, D.C. Statistically the capital has the greatest chance of winning; it was the only metro area that had three proposals reach the final round (Washington, Montgomery County, Maryland and Northern Virginia).
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Amazon is the easiest to take an axe to. To resolve the tax question Amazon should be forced to make a separate facility to service it’s customers in each of the 50 states. A separate facility that is a complete company. (AT&T, Standard Oil).
Keep HQ1 for those who must meet face-to-face.
Robber Barons need periodic Trust Busting....
They want to dominate govt supply and contracting business so DC area is most likely. We have concentrated too much govt in DC and Amazon will take advantage of it.
I believe Amazon is going to select Miami / South Florida as 2nd Headquarters. Miami is gateway to South America. Bezos went to high school in Miami.
Just don’t give it to Chicago.
Frankly Pittsburgh is already turning into San Francisco on the Allegheny. The tech industry has brought huge numbers of Millenials with California values to town.
Not your babushka’s shot-and-a-beer blue collar Catholic Pittsburgh anymore.
Bezos is going to select DC for the same reason he bought the Wash Compost. He views himself as a political kingmaker and force to be reckoned with.
This is about ego, not business.
They are crony monopolies attached at the hip to big swampy government.
I still hope for something better. If Amazon comes to DC, it should locate inside the beltway and hopefully within DC proper. Alternatively, go to a smaller city in flyover country with a good university and people who still cling to their guns and religion.
wtf does a company need a duplicate HQ for anyway?
redundancy? Hahaha...just guessing
I watched “The Circle” this weekend by Tom Hanks.
Other than the ending which was unbelievable, it could easily be a view of Amazon or FB.
It is all about control
D.C. is where their money will buy the most influence.
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