I thought Australia first and then thought that's a bit random of a choice. Brisbane, CA makes some more sense.
That said, I don't think they'll move. I think they're bluffing to get San Francisco to throw some of those tax breaks their way. It'd really annoy employees who just bought houses in expensive San Francisco so they wouldn't need to commute, then being told they need to commute (or sell their house in a bit of shaky real estate market and move down to Brisbane).
If they do move, there will be some employees who won't go, which is great for other soma startups who will be more than happy to snipe some of their employees.
It would have helped if the title had mentioned "Brisbane, California" rather than just Brisbane. I clicked this thinking they were considering moving to Australia for some random reason.
I agree... but for a totally different reason. I thought it was an incredibly bad joke considering that Brisbane, Australia has just been hit by the worst floods since 1974. The CBD and many suburbs are literally awash in water. It's a national disaster: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/gallery-fn7... So... I was relieved to see the piece had absolutely nothing to do with the plight of Brisbane, Australia!
At first I thought, "This must be an article from a year ago, so we'd be like, 'aw MAN, they dodged a bullet'." Then I was like, "Oh man, I hope they're not trying to buy up recently flooded property on the cheap." Then I was like, "Oh. California. X'ing out."
That said, I don't think they'll move. I think they're bluffing to get San Francisco to throw some of those tax breaks their way. It'd really annoy employees who just bought houses in expensive San Francisco so they wouldn't need to commute, then being told they need to commute (or sell their house in a bit of shaky real estate market and move down to Brisbane).