Google to Purchase Its Mountain View, Calif. HQ for $319M

Google, the world’s leading search engine, is purchasing its current Mountain View, Calif., headquarters from four commercial real estate companies, and the search giant will pay $319 million, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

The purchase includes the company’s “Googleplex,” a term coined by techies to describe the group of buildings that makes up Google’s “nerve center,” according to the AP.

The news comes from Securities and Exchange Commission filings Google submitted on Wednesday, and the company hopes to put the finishing touches on its purchase by July, the AP reports.

Google started leasing its current 1-million-square-foot headquarters in 2003, and because its previous occupant, high-performance computer producer Silicon Graphics, filed for bankruptcy and still holds some contractual agreements with the owners, the deal requires the approval of a local bankruptcy court, according to the AP.

The company also needs the OK of the city of Mountain View, because it has a number of ground leases on the land to be bought, the AP reports. Google will have to dole out $315,000 a month to Mountain View to buy out the leases, and it will face annual rent increases of 4 percent to 7 percent, according to the AP.

Google currently employs some 7,000 staffers, and it recently announced roughly 1,800 job listings, the AP reports.

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