Jeff Bezos may dictate how Virginia’s political mess gets cleaned up
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Ask yourself a simple question:
If this front page had appeared a couple of months ago, would Bezos (Amazon) have picked Northern Virginia for HQ2?
I’d bet the under on that one.
Which begs a couple of questions….
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1) Will Amazon back out of its current deal to plant the AWS part of HQ2 in Northern Virginia?
Sure, reversing the decision would be costly and legally messy … but AMZN has no shortage of money or lawyers.
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2) What outcome would make Bezos happy?
In normal times, deeper financial incentives would do the trick.
But, Bezos obviously wants to be a political mover & shaker, so he may just want to collect political IOUs … or get some “favorite sons” well positioned in the VA gov’t — which is joined at the hip with the Feds in DC and will be pivotal in the 2020 election.
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3) How does this mess impact other companies currently or prospectively located in Virginia?
Apple must be sighing relief that it picked Austin over NoVA.
Another simple question: Would you want to be a CEO pitching the Board to relocate to Virginia now?
Count me out on that one.
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Bottom line
All of the attention has been focused on the racial and sexual transgressions … and, on their political repercussions.
Too little attention has been given to the economic impacts … which I think will ultimately be determining.
What a mess !
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