Software maker Oracle passes on expanding to Treasure Valley
Business software giant Oracle has decided against opening a data center in the Treasure Valley, the Idaho Department of Commerce confirmed Wednesday.The California company had narrowed its choices to the Treasure Valley and the Salt Lake City area.”Commerce has been involved in this with our economic development partners for about six months,” spokesman Bibianna Nertney said. The state has not been told why the Treasure Valley was passed over, Nertney said. The department didn’t deal directly with Oracle but worked through a site selector representing the company. She said Salt Lake has been working to attract Oracle for almost three years.The number of jobs Oracle would have brought to the Valley couldn’t be confirmed, but the Commerce Department said they would have been high-paying.Oracle is a Fortune 200 company that trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In 2007, it reported $18 billion in revenue and $5.3 billion in earnings.A call to Oracle’s public relations department wasn’t returned Wednesday.Although the Commerce Department confirmed the discussions with Oracle, Paul Hiller with the Boise Valley Economic Partnership declined to say if his organization was involved.”I can’t comment on the project at this point, and I can’t confirm that it is in fact Oracle,” he said.But Hiller did say his organization is still negotiating with an unnamed information technology company.”We’ve got nine projects currently under way, and one is with an information technology company,” he said.The negotiations with the IT company could bring between 200 and 300 high-paying jobs, but Hiller said any decision is “several months away from a conclusion.” The nine projects could bring about 4,000 jobs, he said. This is the third potential company expansion in the area that has fallen through in the past few months.In December, Hiller’s organization confirmed that two companies including a chemical company had been considering locating in Boise, but there wasn’t sufficient power available for the company’s heavy industrial needs.Despite the recent disappointments, Hiller said interest in the area remains high.He said the industries looking at the Boise area in a variety of fields, including manufacturing and high technology.But he said if Boise is chosen, some of the jobs wouldn’t arrive soon because the majority of the companies are looking at expansions in a five- to 10-year time frame after the current economic downturn is over.The Idaho Business Review first reported that Oracle had pulled out on its Web site Wednesday. Ken Dey: 672-6757
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