Below is an email distributed to Nissan employees just over a week ago (source: LA Observed):

Sent on behalf of Jim Morton, Sr. Vice President, Administration & Finance and Jed Connelly, Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing

In September we notified all employees that a study was being conducted to determine if our current NNA and NMAC headquarter locations would support our future business objectives in an ever increasingly competitive market. This facility study is ongoing.

Today, several media outlets have reported that Nissan has decided to move its North American Headquarters from Gardena to a location in Tennessee. We can tell you that no decision regarding any facility relocation has been made. During a recent employee-executive dialogue
meeting, Mr. Ghosn committed to providing a decision on this matter by mid-November. We are still committed to that timing.

While there is much media speculation regarding this matter, be assured that any official announcements regarding any of our business decisions will be communicated to you first through our corporate communications network and not through any external media.

Yeah sure. Today, the company is expected to announce it is indeed going to relocate out of California.

Independent Sources predicts significant costs savings and crappy car design/marketing will be the result.

What will auto expert Joe say about this? (Update: Joe’s just weighed in with “Tennesee may have it’s charms but “lively” and “artsy” are infrequent adjectives.”)

Question: Will the Times’ Michael Hiltzik write about this or is it not a big enough business story/issue of California that companies with every possible reason for staying are bailing?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2005 at 9:30 am by Insider and is filed under How Not To Succeed In Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.