Meta In Talks To Reincorporate In Texas or Another State, Exit Delaware

According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Meta is in talks to move its incorporation from Delaware to Texas or other states. Reuters reports: The social media giant has talked to Texas officials about the potential changes, WSJ said, adding that the discussions predate President Donald Trump's new administration. The paperwork change would not relocate its corporate headquarters.

A Meta spokesperson said that it does not plan on shifting its corporate headquarters out of Menlo Park, California, but declined to comment on reincorporation when contacted by Reuters. Texas is perceived by some businesses as having a more favorable legal and regulatory environment, particularly in areas such as taxation and corporate governance, which can be attractive to companies looking to cut costs and streamline operations.

Awww...

[dskoll]

Poor widdle multi-billionaires need to hang on to more billions...

Move Over Cayman Islands...

[Thelasko]

there's a new sheriff... er... tax haven in town!

Zuck cannot compare to Musk

[stabiesoft]

He is just following Leon to TX. Zuck could only dream to achieve things like https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/3... [cnbc.com] Musk has now put his hand in the US Treasury cookie jar. This should frighten even the republicans in the house/senate. But it won't until too late.

Re:Zuck cannot compare to Musk

[Darinbob]

They're not moving. It's just incorporating. Meta was never headquartered in Delaware. This is all a corporate thing, each state has different rules, and Delaware used to be the most friendly for most companies, but it's still too fussy about old fashioned ideas like "laws" to appeal to the techbros.

Re:Zuck cannot compare to Musk

[stabiesoft]

I was talking about corp charter location. Leon has moved those from Delaware to TX, all of them. Because as you say, DE judge thought the board played a little too fast and loose with Leon's comp package. In Leon's case though he also moved the physical location (from CA) to TX. Don't be surprised if Zuck follows on that as well in time. Income taxes for Zuck in Palo Alto are probably pretty stiff. Although I imagine Zuck does what all the billionaire's do. Borrow against shares that are never sold, hence no gain, hence no tax. Although all of this may be idle talk if what appears to be a coup with musk taking over treasury with don's blessing. Seriously, what spaceX/tesla top level lieutenant of musk would trade their massive pay package for a job in the federal gov? And yet here we seem to be. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/3... [cnbc.com]

Re:

[Darinbob]

Income taxes don't mean much if you're that rich. As an old boss once told me, if you pay income tax then you're not rich enough. California is no different than other states, meaning lots of tax dodge loopholes. Building wise, Texas has higher real estate taxes, Musk I assume knew that and he moved not because it was going to be more profitable but because he lost his temper. CA income tax is still a fraction of federal taxes, so Musk could have moved to another country... no wait, almost all of them yo

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

What's going on is terrifying. I'm a little hazy on the next steps but what happens after you conduct mass purges of undesirable government employees and replace them with loyalists?

Just think of the headlines and constant news scrolls if Biden had done this.

Re:

[leonbev]

I think that Zuck saw what Bezos's trophy wife was packing at the Trump inauguration, and decided that he needs to make some life upgrades! I wonder if the divorce laws are more friendly than they are in California...

Some consequences take time to play out

[tiqui]

This is, quite likely, part of what will be a long, slow rollout of consequences for a reckless bunch of judges in Delaware. Delaware was once such a business-friendly state that many businesses PHYSICALLY located elsewhere were incorporated in Delaware [technical.ly] and contracts with them were governed by Delaware law. Look at the paperwork for your bank and/or credit card companies... there's a pretty good chance your financial services are from a Delaware corp.

Then Elon Musk bought Twitter, and the leftists went insa

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Judges in Delaware decided they had some unique and superior insight into how much money Tesla should pay Elon to be the CEO. They overrode the board of directors of the company, and refused to self-correct at the appeals level. The derangement, it seems, knows no ends, no matter how much damage this will eventually do to the tiny state.

From your link:

Legal authorities generally suggest that McCormick’s ruling was sound and followed the law. Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said that in his view, McCormick was right to rule that after Tesla lost its case in the original trial, it created improper new evidence by asking shareholders to ratify the pay package a second time.

In response, Tesla moved its incorporation from Delaware to Texas. Zuck clearly has come to realize that some judge in Delaware could arbitrarily cut HIS compensation package at any moment, and retro-actively to boot. No executive with a large compensation package will want to take that risk. Other companies are following suit in leaving, now that the precedent has been set that the courts of Delaware might arbitrarily chop the pay of any corporate executives THEY decide to cut. The state's judges have single-handedly changed the state to a business-hostile state. As companies eventually move out, they will contribute less and less to the state's economy and the local taxpayers will end up seeing THEIR taxes rise to compensate.

See above.