The Texas drawl rang out across the airwaves from San Diego to Sacramento: “I hear building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas Governor Rick Perry and I have a message for California businesses: come check out Texas.” Broadcast in February 2013, the radio advert was Perry’s boldest stunt in a campaign to lure companies from the west coast to Texas.
It aims to hoover up listings among the 5,000 plus private equity backed groups in and around the state preparing to go public and snare some of the 1,500 in the region that are already publicly traded. Less interference is a selling point for both, whether it is the courts seeking to capitalise on anger over perceived judicial over-reach in Delaware or the exchange looking to attract companies chafing at Nasdaq’s controversial diversity quotas.