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In a story on Arthur Sulzberger, Mark Bowden wrote in Vanity Fair, "Whether owing to hubris or sheer distraction, the erection of a new headquarters often

In a story on Arthur Sulzberger, Mark Bowden wrote in Vanity Fair, "Whether owing to hubris or sheer distraction, the erection of a new headquarters often seems to spell trouble for corporations." http://www.businessinsider.com/poorly-timed-headquarters-2009-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/poorly-timed-headquarters-200... Anecdotal experience tends to lead many people in the technology industry to suggest that growth (or newly “sexy”) companies rapidly head into difficulties at about the same time as they move from the seedy garages and crumbling buildings they started in to shiny new office buildings. http://www.ipglossary.com/glossary/new-headquartersoffice-syndrome-shiny/ http://www.ipglossary.com/glossary/new-headquartersoffice-sy...

Johnny555 10y ago
For example, Zynga's office building is worth more than the entire company: https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-more-than-zynga-the-company-47a704d48249 https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-...
- bduerst 10y ago
  Was maybe. Zynga's cash is less than that even with the same valuation, so the math doesn't check out anymore.
- dgbmeow 10y ago
  This is a satirical blog. Please take a second to look at the rest of its content.
  - Johnny555 10y ago
    I first saw it reported in SFGate, they've since retracted the story: Editor's note: SFGATE has removed this story after reviewing Zynga's company valuation. The initial report was based on the enterprise value of Zynga compared to its cash reserves and property value. The latest company financial data as of May 6th, 2016, however, indicates an overall market valuation of $2.2 billion, with cash reserves of $987 million, putting its enterprise value at $1.21 billion, which is significantly more than the projected value of the company's real estate holdings at 8th and Townsend Streets in San Francisco.
jasonpeacock 10y ago
Depending on how you count, Amazon has made ~5 campus moves in the last 20yrs. So far, so good...
- gohrt 10y ago
  Amazon didn't build headquarters before the SLU move. Before that they rented pre-existing structures. That difference is the point of the predictive signal.
  - wickawic 10y ago
    Well then in that case there have still been 2 new headquarters buildings :)
adventured 10y ago
The problem with that correlation in this case, is that in all of the best examples of that phenomenon, the companies were no longer being run by their founders. I'd be willing to bet that's not a trivial factor in the overall situation.
- aab0 10y ago
  And also regression to the mean (a constant factor in any of these attempts to predict the fall of a big company). When will a company want to, or need to, build a big headquarters? When things have been going very well and the sky seems like the limit.
nemild 10y ago
I assume you have evidence backing up this correlation for large, mature tech companies, rather than startups?

Johnny555 10y ago

For example, Zynga's office building is worth more than the entire company: https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-more-than-zynga-the-company-47a704d48249 https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-...

bduerst 10y ago
Was maybe. Zynga's cash is less than that even with the same valuation, so the math doesn't check out anymore.
dgbmeow 10y ago
This is a satirical blog. Please take a second to look at the rest of its content.
- Johnny555 10y ago
  I first saw it reported in SFGate, they've since retracted the story: Editor's note: SFGATE has removed this story after reviewing Zynga's company valuation. The initial report was based on the enterprise value of Zynga compared to its cash reserves and property value. The latest company financial data as of May 6th, 2016, however, indicates an overall market valuation of $2.2 billion, with cash reserves of $987 million, putting its enterprise value at $1.21 billion, which is significantly more than the projected value of the company's real estate holdings at 8th and Townsend Streets in San Francisco.

jasonpeacock 10y ago

Depending on how you count, Amazon has made ~5 campus moves in the last 20yrs. So far, so good...

gohrt 10y ago
Amazon didn't build headquarters before the SLU move. Before that they rented pre-existing structures. That difference is the point of the predictive signal.
- wickawic 10y ago
  Well then in that case there have still been 2 new headquarters buildings :)

adventured 10y ago

The problem with that correlation in this case, is that in all of the best examples of that phenomenon, the companies were no longer being run by their founders. I'd be willing to bet that's not a trivial factor in the overall situation.

aab0 10y ago
And also regression to the mean (a constant factor in any of these attempts to predict the fall of a big company). When will a company want to, or need to, build a big headquarters? When things have been going very well and the sky seems like the limit.

nemild 10y ago

I assume you have evidence backing up this correlation for large, mature tech companies, rather than startups?