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US tech giants pull out of London.

 

US tech giants

According to people familiar with the plans, Google's parent Alphabet, Facebook's parent Meta and enterprise software giant Salesforce are among the US groups seeking to abandon leased office space in London and Dublin. Office values were tumbling on both sides of the Atlantic because of rising interest rates, an increasingly bleak economic outlook and increased home working. «Walk around any of those offices, and there is a huge amount of space given over to non-fee generating functions which look very generous,» said Chris Lewis, who advises office occupiers at property company DeVono Cresa. Belgrave House is its former London headquarters, but Google's lease across several floors on the building was drawing to an end, these people said.

That move is part of a broader shake-up, with the company intending to move most staff into its £1bn office in King's Cross, now under construction. The closure has been accelerated because one in 10 Google staff has chosen to work from home permanently, according to a person familiar with the operations. According to people familiar with the company's plans, Google is also exploring subletting or abandoning more of its existing rented office space across London. Google declined to comment.

Meta signed a lease on a 310,000-square-foot office in Fitzrovia in central London last year but is now trying to sublet the block without ever having moved in, according to people with knowledge of the deal. The company is also looking for new tenants for hundreds of thousands of square feet in Dublin, which it had intended to occupy. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company's «real estate footprint» would be «shrunk» to cut costs, with hybrid workers asked to share desks. Such moves mirror efforts in the US, where the company is trying to find tenants for its building in Fremont, California.

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  1. Louis22 December 2022 at 20:29

    Of course, Mark Zuckerberg needs to cut costs - the many blunders and so much money spent with his metaverse have taken their toll. If he keeps it up, soon FB will lose everything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ned22 December 2022 at 22:14

    Surprised to hear just 1 in 10 Google staff has chosen to work from home. I was expecting the number to be at least double. Why would you go to work and waste so much time when you can do the same thing from the comfort of your home?

    ReplyDelete

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