Exxon moving Corp HQ to Houston (from Irving) (San Antonio, Austin: community college, airport)

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Yes, the leaders in market cap these days are in the "trillions" now and XOM is still in the 100's of billions.

They are going to need some new technologies like Green Hydrogen to keep up and start growing again. just 10 or 15 years ago energy was like 25% of the S&P index these days it's like 3%.

Yeah, it would take a world changing technology to change the course of any one player in the industry. Im not an alarmist, and we’re certainly going to need O&G for the rest of my lifetime, and probably my children’s lifetimes, but their days of leading the pack are in the rear view mirror.

It’s a shame too. When I joined Exxon their motto was “Taking in the Worlds Toughest Energy Challenges”, and I wished so hard for that to be true. The industry (and the planet) desperately needed someone to step up and take the challenges head on and lead forward. Instead they invested 10s of billions on high carbon, high cost of production reserves (Canada) and plays they absolutely didn’t understand at the time (XTO). Not only did they not solve any challenges, they destroyed shareholder value in the process. They’re back to making profits, but it’s hard not to at $90 oil and after taking tens of billions of dollars in impairments (which reduces depreciation expense from here on out).

I’m excited to see what they can do on CCS because while it’s not a “game changer”, it can potentially fill a much needed role as we work towards a long term solution for sustainable and affordable energy. I did a lot of work supporting their Wyoming projects where carbon capture was a big part of the business (I.e claiming tax credits) and am interested to see where this goes. Could be a big driver for Houston investment.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by SanJac

Today Exxon announced revenue of $286B +57% Y/Y, and they generated the most profit since 2014.

I think they'll end up in the top 5 of the Fortune 500.

The Fortune 500 is a bad measure, since it's revenue only.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Right. But in the end, they are basically done growing in Houston. Their growth happened from 08-14ish. From there, it’s been hovering.

I would dispute where you said this is more important than HPE moving here. I most certainly disagree. As I mentioned, Exxon’s growth happened years ago and is over with. HPE has been the leader of supercomputers particularly since their acquisition of Cray and have opened laboratories here to support them. After Meg Whitman’s atrocious tenure as CEO, the new board has actually managed the company smarter rather than the takeover conquer queen who was Whitman. That’s why they’ve been able to grow into what they’ve become in the last couple of years. I understand ExxonMobil is one of the worlds largest companies but that doesn’t change their growth here. It’ll look good in bragging rights, GDP distribution and such but that’s that atleast for the near future.

And trust me I agree with your Irving point, but as mentioned, this is more bad news for Irving than it is good news for SPV/Woodlands area.

You have to realize, most people outside of this particular website don’t pay mind to where headquarters are listed.

I agree with you from the perspective of actual economic impact - 250 people isn't that big of a deal. The biggest economic impact will probably be juicing up the high-end housing market in that area a bit more as a good proportion of those folks are very highly compensated. Other than that though, I'm with you that Exxon's growth moving forward will likely be fairly slow and other companies here could eventually pass it in terms of relative importance.

With that said, I think the reason it *is* a big deal overall is how it helps market the region. It alone gives folks like the GHP a much clearer story to tell when selling the region and solidifies the whole energy capital thing, which was always a strange thing to claim with the nation's two largest multinational O&G firms being based elsewhere. Despite the fact we've long had the lion's share of white-collar O&G jobs, including executive ones, we're still largely viewed more as a blue-collar type of place when it comes to our O&G activities. And imo that's one factor (though not the biggest or most influential) in why even this move has taken so long for Exxon to make.

Now, in one fell swoop - we have the all of the largest multinationals outside of Chevron and Valero based here, including the biggest one. We'll be the undisputed #3 in the US in F500 companies when this is complete. Internet bragging rights aside, this gives the economic development folks more ammo to work with to attracting additional businesses, both energy companies and others. And given all the hits we've taken since 2015 or so that's a very good thing.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The Fortune 500 is a bad measure, since it's revenue only.

It's still the measure of "How many Fortune 500 companies are in your city". I've never heard anyone say "How many top market cap companies are in your city".

I'm not saying one is better/worse than the other. Just that every, EVERY article I've ever read related to cities & Corp HQ always uses the F-500.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by astrohip

It's still the measure of "How many Fortune 500 companies are in your city". I've never heard anyone say "How many top market cap companies are in your city".

I'm not saying one is better/worse than the other. Just that every, EVERY article I've ever read related to cities & Corp HQ always uses the F-500.

I know, and it's annoyed me for decades. Lazy reporters can't find a better measure, and ignore the fact that, in general, Fortune magazine sucks.

[texas7]

They’ve been two entities. The company headquarters have always been in Houston, then Spring, for as long as I can remember. The corporate headquarters have been in Las Colinas since Corrporate HQ left NYC.

They have that big campus, so makes sense they’d finally combine them for cost and business efficiency.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by WRM20

I know, and it's annoyed me for decades. Lazy reporters can't find a better measure, and ignore the fact that, in general, Fortune magazine sucks.

I'm not sure market cap is a better measure than gross revenue, which is what the F500 is based on.

Market cap can swing like crazy. Doubles in months, drops months later. While it used to be based on forward looking profitability of a company, now it's as much speculation (see: GameStop or AMC) as anything else. WeWork was at almost $50 Billion three years ago, now it's $6B. Market cap is a lousy way to rank a company long-term for comparison purposes, which is the F500 goal.

Revenue is real (fraud excluded). It's not a meme, it's not a unicorn, it's not pumped up by day traders with nothing else to do. It's not crypto. It's real dollars being spent by real people.

Revenue isn't the end-all, be-all. But it's far better than market cap.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

I agree with Astrohip on this one. Market cap tells you where the investors are but doesn’t explain the health of the company. Revenue doesn’t either, however.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by astrohip

I'm not sure market cap is a better measure than gross revenue, which is what the F500 is based on.

Market cap can swing like crazy. Doubles in months, drops months later. While it used to be based on forward looking profitability of a company, now it's as much speculation (see: GameStop or AMC) as anything else. WeWork was at almost $50 Billion three years ago, now it's $6B. Market cap is a lousy way to rank a company long-term for comparison purposes, which is the F500 goal.

Revenue is real (fraud excluded). It's not a meme, it's not a unicorn, it's not pumped up by day traders with nothing else to do. It's not crypto. It's real dollars being spent by real people.

Revenue isn't the end-all, be-all. But it's far better than market cap.

Market cap tells you where investment money is going. Revenues tell you where investment money has been.

[SanJac]

Mr. Clutch gets it.