
Google Buys Seven Floor Building To Tap London Talent - antr
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/google-buys-seven-floor-building-to-tap-london-talent/
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ig1
This is the third large office that Google has obtained in London this year,
they also obtained 157,500 sq ft in the new St Giles complex in central London
back in June.

They've previously said they want to have 750,000 - 1,000,000sq ft of office
space in London, so this is likely just one in a long list of up coming
building acquisitions.

Google clearly planning a huge (multi-1000) employee ramp up in the UK.

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mfringel
The title is misleading. They acquired a long-ish (10 year) lease. They did
not buy the building.

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robk
Word from some Googlers is this will be mostly used for sales rather than
engineering.

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AlexMuir
I wonder if Google see a UK corporation tax cut on the way (or an Ireland tax
rise.)

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antr
Tax doesn't make that much of a difference in these decisions. The Google
business unit which generates big revenues (and pays most of Google's taxes in
Europe) is the holding company in Ireland, which later pays an
R&D/marketing/support/other fee to the local OpCo's where most engineers/sales
reps are based, the so called 'Transfer Pricing'. That is why Google's
regional offices are P&L break-even and hardly pay any corporate tax in the
UK, France, Germany, Spain, etc. Refer to:
[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b42010431...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b4201043146825.htm)
and [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-
sho...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-
how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html) and
[http://www.businessweek.com/technology/google-tax-
cut/google...](http://www.businessweek.com/technology/google-tax-cut/google-
terminal.html)

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simonw
That's two streets away from our office (in the Moo.com complex). I hope they
fill their new building with engineers.

