NEW YORK — Amazon, which is growing too big for its Seattle hometown, is spreading out to the East Coast.
The online shopping giant ended its 14-month-long competition for a second headquarters Tuesday by selecting New York and Arlington, Virginia, as the joint winners. The two cities will each get 25,000 jobs that pay an average of $150,000.
But they’ll pay for it: New York is forking over more than $1.5 billion in tax credits and other incentives, while Arlington is offering about a third of that — $573 million. The communities hope that Amazon will attract other companies and ultimately boost their economies.
Amazon, which started as an online bookstore two decades ago, has grown to a behemoth that had nearly $180 billion in revenue last year. It now owns well-known brands including grocer Whole Foods and online shoe-seller Zappos. It also makes movies and TV shows, runs an advertising business and offers cloud computing services to corporations and government agencies.