Microsoft bringing hundreds of jobs to North Carolina town instead of Houston

Houston lost out on a 500-job Microsoft operation to Morrisville, a town in North Carolina’s Research Triangle metropolitan region.

A project briefing released by the North Carolina Department of Commerce called the project “highly competitive” between Morrisville and Houston.

Specifically, the project is to support headcount growth for new operations in the company’s engineering departments. The capital — estimated to be an investment of $47.5 million — would improve an existing facility…