The sky is not the limit for Google
September 29, 2005
Mountain View, California - Google on Thursday said it has signed an agreement to develop a property of up to 90 ,000 square metres on a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) research centre in the heart of America's Silicon Valley.
The development is part of a partnership between Google and the Nasa Ames Research Centre in Mountain View. The company and government agency will work together to develop data management and computing tools, as well as promote entrepreneurial initiatives in outer space.
Google's announcement didn't provide details about what it might build at Nasa Ames, but the company has made it clear that it needs more office space to accommodate its rapidly growing work force.
During the past two years, Google has been adding an average of four new employees per day, expanding its payroll to nearly 4 200 workers through June, nearly three times more than two years ago.
The Nasa research centre is just a few kilometres from Google's current headquarters - a leased campus known as the "Googleplex" that spans 82 350 square meters).
Google has plenty of money to build another campus, having just raised $4.17 billion (R26.6 billion) in a recently completed stock offering to boost its cash holdings to $7.1 billion (R45.2 billion).
Nasa Ames, in contrast, has been going through a tough times amid budget cutbacks. The 66-year-old space research centre has recently been cutting staff as part of the agency's nationwide restructuring.
"Our planned partnership presents an enormous range of potential benefits to the space program," said Nasa Ames Centre Director G. Scott Hubbard.
Google's shares fell $7.94, or 2.5 percent, to close Wednesday at $306 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. - Sapa-AP
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