NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. multinational financial services company Wells Fargo is selling its longtime headquarters in San Francisco's Financial District and moving to leased offices nearby, following mergers that have created the nation's fourth largest bank, with employees scattered around the nation and an executive staff in New York.
"When news broke last week that Wells Fargo would be selling its longtime San Francisco headquarters and relocating to leased digs down the street, some viewed it as a gentle breakup -- letting someone down easy only to eventually hit them with the hard truth," reported the Los Angeles Times on Thursday about the move.
California's most prominent financial institution has been intimately tied to the city since its Gold Rush-era founding in 1852. But over the last several decades Wells Fargo has gobbled up rivals, making it the nation's fourth-largest bank and leaving it with far-flung operations across the country, and an executive team nearly 3,000 miles away, according to the report.
The announcement has prompted speculation that the company's downsizing in the Bay Area is only a prelude to an eventual move of its official corporate headquarters to a lower-cost location such as Dallas or Charlotte, North Carolina, while its executive team stays on Wall Street, though Wells Fargo denies that.
"Whatever the eventuality, Wells Fargo's departure from its longtime headquarters underscores the diminished role the state and city play as financial centers even as the Bay Area has transformed itself over the last half century into the world's leading tech center, replete with scores of venture capital firms," noted the report. ■
