Google has announced today the completion of their purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, valuing the property at $1.9 billion.
The property is 2.9-million-square-feet and is the biggest deal in 2010 for a single building purchase in the U.S.
Google currently occupies 500,000 square feet in the building, and shares the space with Nike, Lifetime cable, WebMD and many telecoms.
The search giant is said to have won the contract because of its ability to close before the end of the year. The company has already put down a deposit in excess of $200 million.
111 used to be the headquarters for the Port Authority of NY and NJ.
Says Google of the deal:
Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000—a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales “team.” After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue—a former Port Authority building. In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering—and we’re hiring across the board.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue). As part of the deal, we’ve retained Taconic Management Company to continue the leasing oversight services and management of the building on our behalf, providing the same level of customer service the building’s tenants have come to expect. We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.
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Result for: one person
This morning, a 31 year old man from Sweden was found guilty in Sweden’s largest ever P2P case but escaped any jail time for his actions.
The man was initially accused of uploading 23,000 music tracks to the popular filesharing application Direct Connect but Sweden’s Anti-Piracy Agency’s (APB) “use of questionable investigative techniques forced the prosecutor to withdraw some of the charges”, down to about 4500 tracks. The man was also accused of uploading 30 movies.
Instead of jail time, the man received a suspended sentence and a “heavy fine.” The prosecutors were asking for jail time for the man, but the judge had this to say, “this is a task for the government, that by legislative means or in other ways take the necessary actions” to come to a solution to the problem.
More interestingly, the court even implied that the music industry needs to take some responsibility for the current situation they are in, where piracy is rampant, and many have little respect for copyright laws.
The fine however, is decently large and comes out to about 54670 kronor ($10,000 USD) including court fees he must pay back.
Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask, commented on the trial:
“A consequence of the court having increased the sanctions in this case is that it will be easier to make ISPs give out information on IP addresses [in the future]. This of course affects the possibilities to act against these kinds of crimes.”
Morgan Gerdin, the defense lawyer, still feels her client was innocent. “The District Court hasn’t observed the technical evidence. It is not possible from that evidence to conclude that my client has been filesharing. He should have been found not guilty.”
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Result for: one person
Following in the footsteps of a few artists before her, the Australian singer/songwriter Joss Stone has begun encouraging fans to share her music online, going as far as to call piracy “brilliant”.
In a recent interview, the artist admits she loves music but hates the music industry and feels that most artists are brainwashed by the industry.
When asked after a recent concert how she felt about piracy and unauthorized downloads on the Internet, she replied, “I think it’s great…yeah, I love it. I think it’s brilliant and I’ll tell you why,” Stone continued. “Music should be shared. [...] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music. So, I like it, I think that we should share.”
“It’s ok, if one person buys it, it’s totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don’t care. I don’t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool. I don’t mind. I’m happy that they hear it.”
Late last year, the rapper 50 Cent made positive statements for piracy, and bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have even offered their albums on their own sites, disregarding the record labels. More recently, Kidrock told fans to “steal” his album all they wanted.
