COMPANIES Amazon to split second HQ between New York and Virginia

Ending a more than year-long competition that attracted interest from scores of North American cities, Amazon has selected New York and Northern Virginia to share responsibilities as home to its second headquarters.

Amazon is dividing its additional base evenly between New York’s Long Island City and Arlington County’s Crystal City neighbourhoods. The company plans to evenly split the offices with as many as 25,000 employees, The Wall

Street Journal reported. Last month, the online retailer and cloud computing heavyweight reported third-quarter net sales rose to $56.6 billion from $43.74bn a year earlier. It will generate nearly 50,000 jobs through its new twin headquarters.

Amazon initiated its search in September 2017 across the US for the second facility in addition to its current base in Seattle.

Out of more than 230 cities competing for the new headquarters, Amazon shortlisted 20 sites in January.

However, Amazon later decided to split the second headquarters between two cities in a bid to maximise its ability to attract the best technology talent.

In September, Amazon said it would also raise its minimum wage for warehouse workers to $15 an hour.

The e-commerce company is also reportedly planning to open nearly 3,000 Amazon Go outlets in the coming years. Amazon Go is the web retailer’s cashierless pilot store at its Seattle headquarters.

Amazon bought the UAE’s e-commerce platform Souq. com for $580 million in 2017, the biggest foreign acquisition in a regional start-up so far.