Oracle, the computer giant founded by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, has launched a search for new offices in Reading in a move that is expected to unlock the sale of its 24-acre campus in the Berkshire town, CoStar News can reveal.
Market sources said the group has begun to view options for a 40,000 to 60,000-square-foot requirement in either out-of-town or the town centre of Reading, about 40 miles west of London.
The software company has significantly scaled back the space it occupies at its campus at Thames Valley Park in recent times. It is now thought to occupy around 80,000 square feet in some of the buildings it owns across 24 acres fronting the M4 motorway, including around 20,000 square feet in 530 Oracle Parkway.
Once it decides on the site for its relocation, local advisers expect a sale of all 24 acres to be launched. Advisers expect the Oracle campus to be of particular interest to industrial developers, as well as a longstanding requirement from the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
The wider 80-acre Thames Valley Park was developed by Argent and is also home to Microsoft and ING Direct. Last year CoStar News revealed Swiss biopharmaceutical group Lonza had chosen 12 acres at the former British Gas site to develop 400,000 square feet of offices, laboratory space and industrial.
Oracle's move mirrors that of its peer Microsoft at the park, and is emblematic of the scaling-back of occupancy by American tech powerhouses in their favoured location during the dotcom boom. The newer generation of tech giants such as Apple and Google have tended to choose central London for campuses, while the likes of Microsoft and Oracle have consolidated as they have focused on hybrid working in the region.
CoStar News revealed at the end of last year that Microsoft had gone under offer to consolidate all operations into an 80,000-square-foot headquarters in the Here building at Thames Valley Park. In 2020 the group had centralised its occupation into Buildings 1, 2 and 3, which provide 241,000 square foot of offices. Buildings 1, 2 and 3 were bought by The Valesco Group, the European real estate investment manager, and AIP Asset Management, the Seoul headquartered asset manager, for around £100 million in 2018.
Microsoft sold the vacated Buildings 4 and 5 to Baumont Real Estate, which alongside V7 has redeveloped them as the 146,000-square-foot Here and Now campus. The Now building is also majority-leased.
Oracle declined to comment.