California saw as many companies move their headquarters out of the Golden State in 2021 as in the two previous years combined, according to a new report released this week.
The Bay Area bore the brunt of many of the departures, [according to the report], which was produced by site selection consultant Joseph Vranich of Spectrum Location Solutions in McKinney, Texas, and the conservative Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University.
In 2021, California saw 153 companies — or more than a dozen each month — move out of the state. Los Angeles County led the list, with the loss of 80 headquarters. San Francisco was second, with 52. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Santa Clara County lost 38 headquarters; Alameda County, 23; and San Mateo County, 12.
The report found 352 corporate headquarters moved out of California between 2018 and 2021, with 75 headquarters leaving in 2020 and 78 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. It tallied 46 leaving in 2018.
The Bay Area’s losses include the headquarters for McKesson Corp., Tesla Inc., Oracle Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. Some expect Chevron Corp., Twitter Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. could soon move their headquarters out of California]. Take a look at the gallery above for other companies that have left.
The biggest winners in the corporate relocations were Texas, followed by Tennessee, Nevada, Florida and Arizona.
The reasons for the HQ relocations will have a familiar ring. High taxes and cost of living, heavy regulation and a legal environment that adds to the cost of doing business in the state were cited by the report’s authors.
