GE is moving to Boston

United States industrial conglomerate General Electric said Wednesday it was moving its corporate headquarters to Boston to gain a technology edge from the city’s concentrated pool of talent.

The industrial giant said Wednesday that it will move its headquarters and 800 jobs to a location in the Seaport, but people familiar with the company’s search say it has not yet pinned down a location, or even whether it will rent existing offices or build new.

GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday that the Boston area has a diverse, technologically fluent workforce that fits with its aspirations.

According to media reports in June, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, started planning to find a new headquarters by emailing employees and telling them that company was considering relocating to a state with “a more pro-business environment”. GE Healthcare said it would move its corporate headquarters and an unspecified number of jobs to Chicago, from the United Kingdom.

The Journal story, which was based on a source close to GE, did not identify which politicians the company was upset with. But GE continued hearing pitches from other states as it said it was seeking a more business-friendly home. “Luckily we’ve won more than we’ve lost”.

However, GE’s presence in the state had been shrinking because much of it was related to its finance arm, GE Capital.

GE was given $120 million through grants and other programs and up to $25 million was offered from the city of Boston in property tax relief. Like officials in Boston, Malloy also spoke with the brass at GE about the decision this morning.

Brendan Sharkey, Connecticut’s Democratic Speaker of the House, said it appeared GE’s decision wasn’t about taxes but rather was driven by its desire to be in the high-tech hub of Boston.

CT also has many corporate tax structures that are less favourable than other states’, such as rules that could put more of GE’s global sales within Connecticut’s grasp, and those probably also tipped the decision, Walczak said.

GE has been headquartered at a suburban campus in Fairfield for more than 40 years, but in the spring of 2015 said it was forming an exploratory committee to look into a move. “And businesses care about how states budget, and now is the time to continue our bipartisan efforts to reform our budget, find new ways to pay our pensions, and create a more sustainable and predictable state budget”, Malloy argued.

While New York would have provided an easy commute for the 800-some employees in Fairfield, Boston was a tough competitor, with the mayor and Gov. Charlie Baker working closely together, according to the Globe. An official announcement is expected from GE on January 14.

“General Electric is rebranding its image and shifting its central business platform away from heavy industry and financial services to digital software and technology, changing the very structure and composition of its headquarters”.

Ouch. Tough day for CT.