Amazon is planning to split its proposed HQ2 project in two after the online retailer failed to secure a city that can cater to its needs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The newspaper said that the Seattle-based retailer was in late-stage talks with communities in the Crystal City area of Northern Virginia and New York City.
Each headquarters will employ 25,000 people, rather than the 50,000 and $5 billion in investment that the company had promised the project would create. If Amazon picks the rumored cities, it is not clear whether it would refer to them as headquarters, considering that they are miles away from each other.
The project has also faced criticism from people who say it is impossible for the company to create a second headquarters. Splitting HQ2 into two equal sized headquarters would cause an uproar because every city bidding for the project is hoping to bring all the 50,000 jobs promised by the company.
Amazon would also backtrack from its original statement that HQ2 would be “full equal to our current campus in Seattle.” The Seattle-based online retailer announced its intention of setting up a second headquarters last year, saying that each employee would earn an average $100,000 per year.
The announcement created a frenzy across the country that saw cities, regions and states compete in a bid to attract the company. Some cities went to great lengths when creating their proposals, with Stonecrest, GA even promising to change its name to “Amazon,” while Newark, NJ offered tax breaks of $7 billion.
Chicago and Illinois have also offered incentives of more than $2 billion. Now skeptics argue that the bidding process was a scheme aimed at maximizing incentives by involving multiple cities.
Amazon.com Inc Company Profile
Amazon.com, Inc. engages in the provision of online retail shopping services. It operates through the following segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The North America segment includes retail sales of consumer products and subscriptions through North America-focused websites such as www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca.
The International segment offers retail sales of consumer products and subscriptions through internationally-focused websites. The Amazon Web Services segment involves in the global sales of compute, storage, database, and AWS service offerings for start-ups, enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions.
The company was founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos in July 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, WA. – CNN Money
