5 ms·

I'd be willing to bet Bezos knew with 90% confidence where he'd want HQ2 a year ago and put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most bene

I'd be willing to bet Bezos knew with 90% confidence where he'd want HQ2 a year ago and put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most benefit possible before moving there.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dev_dull 8y ago
Sounds smart and tactical. I guess there’s a reason he’s one of the richest people in history.
teej 8y ago
Jeff Bezos owns a $23m house in DC. The entire HQ2 process was a farce to get cities to game theory themselves to death in favor of Amazon. HQ2 was always going to be in NOVA.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  Have you made this claim earlier than today?
  - teej 8y ago
    There was someone who wrote a blog or tweet about it awhile back but I couldn’t find it. Found it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg
- marrone12 8y ago
  He also owns the Washington Post, which is based out of DC. It'll create a nice network effect for his companies to share smart people.
- konschubert 8y ago
  Ey, you have to credit Scott Galloway if you cute hi.
  - konschubert 8y ago
    * quote him. I mean "quote him", not "cute hi"
LrnByTeach 8y ago
> put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most benefit possible It may be just one factor, but it is much more than that let me explain. Let us say Bezos came to the conclusion that Northern VA is right place long ago as you said and naively announced the place & commitment. What follows next is 65% of the region people cheer at the announcement and 35% protest stating it will cause housing expensive and traffic congestion etc.. After some back and forth negotiations with local govt. Amazon builds it HQ2. By the time HQ2 complete building complete campus (3 years), the unhappy dissident group get more support and "pass local city and state laws" demanding Amazon should pay for some affordable housing projects and some new infrastructure which may run into few billion dollars. Now with this new bidding game, it is hard for the people of Northern VA to demand Amazon. Even if they do demand few years down the line few billion dollars towards some affordable housing etc. Amazon can happily pack back some of those Billions they got as tax breaks. One can't build a Trillion dollar consumer retail business without playing on basic human psychology.

I'd be willing to bet Bezos knew with 90% confidence where he'd want HQ2 a year ago and put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most benefit possible before moving there.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dev_dull 8y ago

Sounds smart and tactical. I guess there’s a reason he’s one of the richest people in history.

teej 8y ago

Jeff Bezos owns a $23m house in DC. The entire HQ2 process was a farce to get cities to game theory themselves to death in favor of Amazon. HQ2 was always going to be in NOVA.

oh_sigh 8y ago
Have you made this claim earlier than today?
- teej 8y ago
  There was someone who wrote a blog or tweet about it awhile back but I couldn’t find it. Found it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg
marrone12 8y ago
He also owns the Washington Post, which is based out of DC. It'll create a nice network effect for his companies to share smart people.
konschubert 8y ago
Ey, you have to credit Scott Galloway if you cute hi.
- konschubert 8y ago
  * quote him. I mean "quote him", not "cute hi"

LrnByTeach 8y ago

> put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most benefit possible It may be just one factor, but it is much more than that let me explain. Let us say Bezos came to the conclusion that Northern VA is right place long ago as you said and naively announced the place & commitment. What follows next is 65% of the region people cheer at the announcement and 35% protest stating it will cause housing expensive and traffic congestion etc.. After some back and forth negotiations with local govt. Amazon builds it HQ2. By the time HQ2 complete building complete campus (3 years), the unhappy dissident group get more support and "pass local city and state laws" demanding Amazon should pay for some affordable housing projects and some new infrastructure which may run into few billion dollars. Now with this new bidding game, it is hard for the people of Northern VA to demand Amazon. Even if they do demand few years down the line few billion dollars towards some affordable housing etc. Amazon can happily pack back some of those Billions they got as tax breaks. One can't build a Trillion dollar consumer retail business without playing on basic human psychology.