Google Buys $1 Billion of Land in London, UK

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jerm1027

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[citation][nom]fleeb[/nom]1B is the cost of the whole project and not just the plot of land.[/citation]
Don't you just hate it when article headlines mislead you like that?
 

devBunny

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[citation][nom]jerm1027[/nom]Don't you just hate it when article headlines mislead you like that?[/citation]

Sadly I think we're getting to expect it from Tom's. www.bbc.co.uk/news is also riddled with click-seeking headline spin. :-/
 

Prescott_666

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[citation][nom]myromance123[/nom]1 Billion US Dollars or 1 billion pounds sterling?I'm pretty sure it makes a huge difference.[/citation]

From the article:
Google is investing a £650 million pounds to buy and develop the site, which will be worth £1 billion when it is finished.

So Pounds.
 
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Jane, you normally have such good headlines and articles, probably the best on Toms, but this one is definitely not your best.

The headline is simply incorrect! Go read BBC News, then come back and fix!
 

Prescott_666

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[citation][nom]moricon[/nom]Jane, you normally have such good headlines and articles, probably the best on Toms, but this one is definitely not your best.The headline is simply incorrect! Go read BBC News, then come back and fix![/citation]

I don't think that the writers of the articles write the headlines. Usually that is done by someone else, who is usually in a hurry, usually doesn't really care, and may or may not read past the first sentence.
 

wdmfiber

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I don't think the 2.4 acres is accurate. My lawn is bigger than that, granted I'm on 302 acres. But a billion dollars! ...seriously, there wouldn't be room for the employees. Let alone decent sized offices or computer/meeting rooms.

The Microsoft Campus in Redmond Washington is almost 200 acres, just in building space. LOL!
 

deadlockedworld

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[citation][nom]JAYDEEJOHN[/nom]So, too much taxation here in the states?[/citation]

No its the self-entitled, uneducated people that are causing companies to leave. Most U.S. companies are based in areas with higher taxes and higher average education levels.
 

Prescott_666

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[citation][nom]wdmfiber[/nom]I don't think the 2.4 acres is accurate. My lawn is bigger than that, granted I'm on 302 acres. But a billion dollars! ...seriously, there wouldn't be room for the employees. Let alone decent sized offices or computer/meeting rooms. The Microsoft Campus in Redmond Washington is almost 200 acres, just in building space. LOL![/citation]

An Acre is 43,560 square feet. 2.4 Acres is 104,544 square feet. The building is unlikely to fill the entire lot, it will probably have a sidewalk around it and maybe a small lawn and some driveways. So to allow for that, and also to simplify the math, I'm going to call it 100,000 square feet per floor.

The article says 7 to 11 floors, so approximately 700,000 to 1,100,000 square feet. Plus it will probably have two or three levels of basements.

I think they can do it on a 2.4 acre lot, although my first reaction was this is an insane waste of money. They probably need a small office in London, which they should lease, and they should put the million square foot office building somewhere that land, and everything else, is a lot cheaper
 

wdmfiber

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@Prescott_666

I'm not saying what you wrote it wrong. I liked it ...interesting. And I was already doing some rough calculations. But how can the Burj Khalifa(world's tallest building) at 163 floors ...cost 1.5 billion. That building is humongous! This future Google complex must be on a 24 acre lot. Or your: quote "insane waste of money" is the understatment of the decade!
 

kinggremlin

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[citation][nom]wdmfiber[/nom]I don't think the 2.4 acres is accurate. My lawn is bigger than that, granted I'm on 302 acres. But a billion dollars! ...seriously, there wouldn't be room for the employees.[/citation]

I agree, that sounds way too small. The math doesn't work. 2.4 acres is 104,544 sq/ft. How can you build a million sq/ft building on that lot under 10 stories? A seven story building that takes up every square inch would be only 731,808 sq/ft. Is google going to build an upside pyramid that overhangs the surrounding streets? The building would have to be a minimum of 10 stories, so you can rule out the options of 7-9 stories in this article.
 
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This is some of the most expensive areas in London. Imagine how much 2.4 acres in the middle of Time Square would cost? A metric assload. Hilarious how everyone thinks this is a typo but just have no clue. Also hilarious how everyone thinks they know better than Google. "Insane waste of money"? They haven't had too many losers so far.
 

drpikachu

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[citation][nom]lostmyclan[/nom]lol, in brazil with 1 billion you buy a land sized "germany country" lol...[/citation]

I live here in Brazil. With $1 billion you cant even buy a block in Ipanema beach. 4 room apartment there can cost 20mi dollars.
 

plattyaj

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Traditional British interpretation of a billion is the so called long scale - that is one million million. So 1 billion pounds would be very expensive ;)

But I suspect they are using the American definition (one thousand million) which is becoming more and more standard in the UK.

Anyone who is surprised at the small size of this obviously has never travelled to Europe! Why do you think European's first reaction to the US is usually, "There's so much space!!"
 
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