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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.

AlexMuir
I wonder if Google see a UK corporation tax cut on the way (or an Ireland tax rise.)
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... and http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-sho... and http://www.businessweek.com/technology/google-tax-cut/google...
[dead] savagecat
If Google is serious about talent tapping perhaps they should provide the hardware/software for their employees.
mfringel
The title is misleading. They acquired a long-ish (10 year) lease. They did not buy the building.
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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.
robk
Word from some Googlers is this will be mostly used for sales rather than engineering.