[aworks]

I worked for a large Silicon Valley company that took the exact opposite approach. They didnt think they had expertise to strategically manage real estate. So the company leased their facilities (and moved twice while I was there). They were also in a business where the original products were still generating lots of cash that was invested in adjacent product lines (and mostly successfully).

[paganholiday]

I talked to a CEO of one of these companies who claimed his accountants were pushing him to do the leasing only since a company was only supposed to be in one sector. A tech company that has a lot of real estate on the books wasn't going to have the same ups relative to book value, etc. Of course not having the same downs seems worth it if you aren't a day trader.

[georgeecollins]

That's classic (bad) business school advice. Core competency. When I went every company was supposed to try and be like GE. Amazon in particular ignored many of the things I was taught. Take a college professors business advice with a grain of salt.