Facebook is planning to open a new office outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters, and the office of Texas Governor Rick Perry announced in a Facebook note (How appropriate!) that the state is willing to offer Facebook $1.4 million in incentives to establish the new operation — along with its 200 jobs — in the city of Austin.
The deal is contingent on the city of Austin agreeing to pitch in $200,000 of incentives itself and on Facebook actually deciding that Austin is the best place to go. Austin will vote on the plan within a few weeks.
Facebook’s Chief Operations Officer said something positive but noncommittal: “We’ve been exploring various options around the U.S. to establish an additional online sales and operations office … Austin, with its deep talent pool, would allow us to hire the high-caliber employees we need to properly serve the people, advertisers and developers that rely on our service.”
The jobs at the new office would offer annual salaries that would average around $54,000 — almost $12,000 higher than the city’s median household income — so it’s understandable that the state of Texas is interested in attracting Facebook. Facebook is also a very high-profile company, with 400 million active users. It would be a big win for Austin’s reputation as a secondary tech hub, especially since Facebook has made only small expansions outside of Palo Alto in the past.
Google opened an Austin office in 2008, but closed it down just a few months later; the city’s tech scene is still reeling from that event. If Facebook sets up shop there and stays, the city could regain some lost confidence.
Tags: austin, business, facebook, News, rick perry, texas
