Does anyone think building the new HQ with this economic climate is a little crazy?
I can’t help but think about how they will ultimately cut people as part of the balance sheet tight-rope act such an enormous expense will cause.
Lastly, as a Dallas native I’m worried about the economic health of the city when we leave. I know the tower isn’t the best but access to mid-day kayaking isn’t something anyone cares about.
Considering the Dallas tax benefits expiring and new Plano ones approved then no it is not crazy financially.
I thought IA was replacing everyone. Why do we need a new HC? Just put the CEO in one of the Central office that floods everytime it rains. Bet the company has 10,000 unused offices throughout its current footprint I know of about 100 in one building. This is a total waste of money.
Check the new tax write downs treatment on capex for 2026. 100% write down in the first year. Like building it for free.
Stock is $24 today and taking out a $400M loan to build a new campus, WTF is this insanity.
"It’s about The Stank beating his chest and trying to build a legacy."
Kind of like a ballroom, Washington Arch, and a bunch of gold statues.
They cut benefits to zero because they can’t afford to give there employees decent benefits. But yet they need 400 million dollar corporate headquarters. That they will continue to downsize employee headcount
The csuite is crazy
What’s crazy is they will probably sell the buildings on the new Plano campus and lease them back. Why not just lease 2 more buildings tomorrow and solve the space and parking problem now?
Let’s be real; they’ll never get passed building more than 2 buildings on the campus before everything goes bust.
As T CEOs change, so goes the HQ building. Remember these?
(1) Original NYC building (195 Broadway),
(2) Basking Ridge, NJ campus,
(3) New NYC building, 550 Madison Ave, Chippendale top
(4) Dallas AT&T Discovery district
(5) Plano campus
Stanky’s Folly
You can’t justify it. A company with all focus on cost cutting? It’s never going to deliver financial benefit to outweigh the expense.
Companies with $155B in debt shouldn’t be building brand new billion dollar campuses.
All jobs should be moved to Minneapolis for spectacular results with efficiencies, productivity, cost containment, diverse collaboration, honesty and peacefulness.
The giant tower in the renderings of the new HQ remind one of a giant phallic symbol; a true testament to the CEO’s massive ego!
The new HQ has absolutely nothing to do with productivity. It’s about The Stank beating his chest and trying to build a legacy. Even though all he has done is destroy everything he has been a part of.
@ce Wasting all this money when they could simply go back to being remote to both attract talent and cut costs is nuts. However doing that would require Stankey to admit he is wrong and wouldn’t give him his version of Trump’s ballroom.
This is already a relic of the dot-com era and they’ve barely started clearing the site.
Oh to put this type of investment into improving the customer experience. Customer first - period. Right? Nah. People on the front line feel the most pressure to serve and retain customers and yet they aren’t the ones in these corporate Taj Mahals enjoying the fruits of their own labor. It’s such an insult to those that serve the customer instead of themselves.
They just borrowed $400million to begin building it. At a time when all we’ve heard for years is we have to cut costs, it seems to be another bad idea.
What i’ve heard is they cannot get top talent from the new hires so this is the remedy to fix that issue.
The issue isn’t the walls of the building, it’s what goes on behind the walls that matters. But remember a consultant most likely was paid a lot of money to guide the executives to the new building decision.
I find it to be a waste of $1.3billion. The money could be better used elsewhere in the company.
You mean the biggest, most beautiful economy we’ve ever had? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
They’ll cut people but not to afford the headquarters. They’ll have the money for. It. They likely have some headcount goals for each year anyway.
You can guarantee there will be “cost cutting efforts” made in order to offset the new HQ build. Clearly, it won’t be advertised in such a manner.
However, you know it will happen.
Not your concern.
Don't mess with Texas.
I’ve never been to Dallas and I’ll never be in Plano. I really don’t care.