Whether you live in the UK or not, the chances are good that developments in the UK have hit your news feeds. This is largely due a monumental decision taken by the UK public to cease to be a member of the European Union. The so-called ‘Brexit’ decision has had immense repercussions on financial markets across the globe and has effected companies across the board including the major tech companies and has seen analysts, advisers and just about everyone else trying to predict and mitigate against the effects of changes that a ‘British exit’ could bring.
As part of that mitigating, various big-name companies have been coming out and declaring their own Brexit of sorts. This is in relation to whether those companies feel they can continue to host operations within the UK. When the UK officially leaves the EU, there is the possibility that they will lose access to the single market. A possibility which has meant companies are evaluating whether they should up and move any UK bases to another European company, as a means to remain within the single market. Needless to say, Google is one of those companies as they do have an operating base within the UK, as well as elsewhere in Europe. However, it is this widespread number of locations that leads Google’s Eric Schmidt to believe that it is unlikely to force Google to change their current UK base setup. As Schmidt is reported to have noted during a tech conference in Paris, “We have large operations in Ireland, in Britain, France, Germany and so forth.” As a result and while Schmidt does note that “you never know” Schmidt does also state that “it would be hard for me to imagine that we’d make much of a change.”
Of course, with such a wide spreading of bases across Europe, as well as the rest of the world, it stands to reason that Google is not as concerned about the Brexit issue as others. Companies who make use of less spread out locations and are more central to bases in the UK will be the ones who need to consider their position more carefully. As will smaller companies who although not based in the UK, do provide goods to the UK and rely on much smaller profit margins, like OnePlus. Although, this is of course all dependent on whether the UK loses unrestricted access to the single market, which is something that is unlikely to be known for some time.