CEOs Play Hardball with States Over Policy Demands

In recent years, corporate America has been flexing its muscles in a high-stakes game of chicken between CEOs and states. Companies are increasingly making public threats to leave cities or states if their demands aren't met.

Coca-Cola's 1965 intervention in Atlanta is often cited as an example of this tactic. The company's then-president, Paul Austin, gathered the city's business leaders for a private meeting at the exclusive Piedmont Driving Club and warned them that it would be 'embarrassing' for Coca-Cola to be located in a city that refused to honor its Nobel Prize winner.

Since then, several high-profile cases have emerged. In 2024, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison settled a state-led antitrust lawsuit by signaling that the entertainment giant could abandon Hollywood and sell its famed back lot if the legal fight kept the deal from closing.

Some companies have even followed through on their threats. Oracle moved its headquarters from Redwood City to Austin in 2020, while Disney scrapped a planned Florida campus in 2023 due to a feud with Governor Ron DeSantis.

Economist Enrico Moretti notes that for an ultimatum to work, the company must have a viable option elsewhere. If they don't, their threats are empty.