Amazon: “Separate but Equal” Headquarters? No sooner does the Seattle City Council propose a city income tax than Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, announces this morning that it intends to set up a “separate” (but equal!) headquarters somewhere outside of Seattle, and is in the process of soliciting bribes “incentive packages” from interested states and municipalities. Where to start with the hilarity of this?

This is my favorite paragraph in the story:

Amazon plans to hire new executives and groups to locate in that headquarters, and also give senior leaders the option of placing teams in one or both headquarters. Employees currently working in Seattle, Amazon said, may have an opportunity to choose to work from the new headquarters.

And if Seattle manages to get their income tax in place (doubtful), I wonder where Amazon managers will want to work? Seattle already lost Boeing to Chicago. The best part of the Seattle Times story are the comments:

Hah. Why open a second HQ? Who does that? This is designed to be a relocation, not a 2nd. Seattle will soon become the “West Coast Division”, especially after costs are assessed. . . Look at Boeing! Don’t you get it, Seattle and WA State don’t make sense for mammoth companies, not a friendly business environment. . . Nice work Seattle City Clowncil! Keep biting the hands that feed you and soon the food will stop coming. Terrible politics and the attitude of “for profit” businesses being evil is going to slow the rate at which some tech companies rush to Seattle and/or expand within the city of Seattle. . . A proposed city income (which will be overturned, but tried again), a horrid redesign of the Mercer that almost made traffic worse, etc… Keep piling it on and see how things turn out in the next decade. . . Congrats to Comrade Sawant and the rest of the City Council. You just forced the most liberal tech titan in America to look for a new headquarters that is “business friendly.”

Popcorn, please.