
Google will spend $13B on U.S. real estate in 2019 - longdefeat
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/google-will-spend-13-billion-on-real-estate-moves-in-2019.html
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jeffchuber
The Straussian reading is "Google doesn't have good ideas on how to spend it's
capital - might as well buy real estate"

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doctorpangloss
On the one hand, private academic institutions use their colossal endowments
to buy real estate throughout their entire history. The economics of the
specific transactions are just as sensitive to bull/bear runs in equity
markets as Google is sensitive. But you'd have a hard time looking at a
specific building and say, "Oh, they should have spent it on something else,"
even though we have the privilege of seeing academic real estate on timelines
of a hundred years or longer.

On the other hand, if you step away from the economics, you'll have a better
idea of why it's a bad sign for the company if they're blowing huge cash on
buildings. The best secular reason this is a bad move is that it signals a
change in the organization's ego. People build these things under the premise
that (1) it's important to have glossy buildings to attract junior talent, and
(2) it's important to have glossy buildings to retain senior talent. That's
definitely the case with academia too.

But Google ain't Harvard, its brand can turn on a dime, and I can guarantee
you that 22 year old compsci grads and 50 year old product management vice
presidents who think the glossiness of the building is important are much
bigger shitbags than 18 year old college applicants and 70 year old professors
who might think so too.

~~~
sjjshvuiajhz
> and I can guarantee you that 22 year old compsci grads and 50 year old
> product management vice presidents who think the glossiness of the building
> is important are much bigger shitbags than 18 year old college applicants
> and 70 year old professors who might think so too.

Could you elaborate on that? I feel like those labels could all describe the
same people depending on their life experiences. The psychological factors
that result in high-achievers in academia and industry seeking prestige are
too subtle for me to understand well enough to think of any of these people as
“shitbags”.

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Wonnk13
People don't want to live in the valley. With their push on cloud it makes
sense to bolster their regional offices as sales territories solidify. An
added bonus is most teams will have a bit more flexibility in where headcount
is- just look at the growth in Boulder, Austin and Chicago the last couple of
years.

~~~
JamesSchriver
I don't disagree, but I also feel like the current climate in the digital
space, including in the "cloud", has significantly put the brakes on the whole
notion of placing your business in the hands of some self-righteous tech
company full of fanatics that wield their company's power like tyrants that
could role the dice one day and all the sudden what you do and did for years
is now "evil" and must be remove from their infrastructure at short or no
notice.

~~~
kwizzt
I don't quite understand this sentiment. Maybe it's because I or the company I
worked for haven't experienced this kind of situation. Can you shed some light
on what big corps like AWS, Google, MSFT did to other people?

~~~
Meekro
The Daily Stormer was kicked off Google's domain registrar following the 2017
Unite the Right rally. Microsoft's Azure cloud was the host for Gab.com, and
threatened to kick them off unless Gab.com deleted several anti-semitic posts.

These kinds of hateful websites have always been around, but we didn't have
registrars and hosts trying to censor them until 2016 or so.

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throwaway713
A long list of states with maybe Georgia included. I really hope one of these
tech companies opens an office in the southeast; every time I see an article
like this I get my hopes up. It’s not like there’s _no_ tech there. Georgia
Tech produces quite a few CS grads and has a well ranked program. I currently
live in the Bay Area but wish I didn’t have to make the trade off between
career and being near family.

~~~
auiya
Google has had multiple offices and data centers in and around the Atlanta
area, for at least 10+ years now. They have offices all around the southeast.
I passed one on foot in Chapel Hill randomly which I didn't know existed.
/xoogler

~~~
throwaway713
This is news to me. I thought Google’s Atlanta office was closed a while back.
So there are software engineers and data scientists currently working at
Google in the southeast?

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mc32
Looks like they have sizeable DCs in Moncks Corner, SC.
[https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/be...](https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/berkeley-
county/)

~~~
auiya
Yeah it's rather large.
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1669+Garrott+Ave,+Moncks+C...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/1669+Garrott+Ave,+Moncks+Corner,+SC+29461/@33.0641124,-80.0446201,943m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88fe5e4f59aa4ce3:0x59af518226c11476!8m2!3d33.0723572!4d-80.0388587?hl=en)

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godzillabrennus
Opportunity Zones make this decision amazing for them.

Every large company with their eyes open will be buying real estate as part of
that tax plan benefit.

