Forbes reports:
Security giant McAfee has had a very nice run. The company has doubled revenues to $1.9 billion in the past four years and aggressive hiring has followed. This should be fantastic news for California, where McAfee was founded. But it isn't, and the reasons are troubling.
David DeWalt, who heads McAfee, is very intentionally not hiring new staff in the Golden State. Even worse for California, the company a while ago transferred entire departments elsewhere. Is McAfee based in California? Kind of. Only 14%, or roughly 900, of McAfee's 6,500 employees are left in Silicon Valley.
This is a cost-saving measure. McAfee ranks Silicon Valley fourth with the dubious distinction of most expensive places to do business, behind Russia, Japan and London. That's kind of shocking. Mountain View, Calif. sure ain't Tokyo in any sense.
DeWalt figures he can save 30 to 40% every time he hires outside of California. And that's roughly the premium he has to pay in the form of a moving bonus to get someone to relocate to California. Sunshine, pretty hills and nice beaches aren't enough? Apparently not.
Where are they hiring?:
A few years ago McAfee shifted some 1,000 jobs relating to back-office functions--legal, human resources, finance--to Texas
California's European style taxing and regulation isn't good at creating jobs.
