CSC to leave El Segundo
Computer Sciences Corp., the technology consulting company that was formed in an office above a Palos Verdes bakery and spawned an industry under its namesake nearly 50 years ago, said Wednesday it was leaving its El Segundo corporate headquarters.
The move to Falls Church, Va., though long anticipated, would mark yet another storied Southern California headquarters’ departure from the local corporate landscape, joining the likes of Security Pacific Bank, Unocal, First Interstate Corp. and Arco.
The company that was begun by two whiz kids in their 20s in 1959 grew to become one of the nation’s largest information technology companies with revenues of more than $15 billion and employing 92,000 engineers and technicians worldwide.
But for several years the company, better known as CSC, has been steadily reducing its workforce in El Segundo from about 800 a few years ago to barely 400 now. About 200 of them are corporate headquarters staff.
As the company increasingly focused on providing information technology services to the federal government, it also beefed up its presence in Northern Virginia, which now has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of IT companies doing business with the federal government.
About 11,000 CSC employees work in the Falls Church area.
“CSC was founded in the Los Angeles area in 1959, and we have enjoyed a rewarding history of growth and success from our long-standing El Segundo headquarters,” CSC Chief Executive Michael W. Laphen said.
“While we will retain a presence there, the consolidation to Northern Virginia is without a doubt the right move to power CSC’s accelerated growth and expansion.”
Spokesman Michael Dickerson said CSC didn’t know how many of its headquarters staff would move, or whether any jobs would be cut. About 200 non-headquarters staff are expected to remain in El Segundo.
The news prompted regret but little surprise.
“It’s a disappointment, but we will survive,” said Jack Kyser, senior vice president and chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “It makes sense, because they have most of their business and employees on the East Coast, in the Washington, D.C., area.”
With announcements like this, he said, “you feel the pain.”
“It happens. Any time you lose a corporation, people wring their hands. It’s just one of those things.
“With the financial problems the state and L.A. have, we need to get serious about economic development. And that doesn’t mean another retail center,” he added.
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Times staff writer Ken Bensinger contributed to this report.
