14 DAY TRIAL // Google has now officially confirmed its latest acquisition. This time around, though, it's not adding another company to the more than 40 it acquired this year, it has bought a building in New York. One of the biggest buildings in New York, in fact - it's ranked fourth when it comes to office space, which occupies an entire city block.
"Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue)," David Radcliffe, VP Real Estate and Workplace Services at Google, wrote.
The reportedly $1.9 billion deal has been rumored for a while now, but Google is now making it official. While there were several contenders for the building, Google had several advantages.
It was already the biggest tenant of the 2.9 million square feet building, occupying about 550,000 square feet. Also, it was willing to close the deal before the year's end, which has now happened.
Of course, Google was also willing and able to pay in cash, something that not that many companies could have done. But, with well over $30 billion in cash in the company coffers, Google didn't really break a sweat acquiring the building.
Google now hires some 2,000 people in New York, already working in the building, but the company wants to expand greatly in the region.
While existing tenants will not be disturbed and business should continue as usual, Google most likely plans to expand its current office space and, at one point, it's going to have to kick people out.
"Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000—a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales 'team.' After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue—a former Port Authority building," Radcliffe added.
"In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering—and we’re hiring across the board," he said.