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A garage? Has Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) finally lost it?
Not really. You see, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin built Google, they rented out a garage (the company was incorporated on September 7, 1998). It was about 1,900 square feet – and, of course, ultimately turned into a $125 billion empire.
It's something that happens with some frequency in Silicon Valley. For example, in 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their legendary company from a modest garage (Hewlett-Packard Company, NYSE:HPQ, now owns it).
As for the Google garage, it is based in Menlo Park and will now become a Silicon Valley landmark of sorts. Oh, there is even a hot tub on the property. But, apparently, the co-founders did work tirelessly on their search engine.
On the Google corporate site, you can get some info on the early history.
The office offered several big advantages, including a washer and dryer and a hot tub. It also provided a parking space for the first employee hired by the new company: Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology.
Already Google.com, still in beta, was answering 10,000 search queries each day.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-02-2006 @ 6:00AM
Stefano Ulissi said...
For anybody who wants a momento of their own, I have a garage at my house (http://www.angelfire.com/film/casale) that I am willing to part with for a 100k euros or so. I will watch over it for you and you can even call it a "villetta" instead of the Italian word for garage "box".
10-02-2006 @ 9:54AM
Mr Wave Theory said...
The Mountain View-based company bought the 1,900-square-foot home in nearby Menlo Park from one of its own employees, Susan Wojcicki, who had agreed to lease her garage for $1,700 per month because she wanted some help paying the mortgage.
Wojcicki, now Google's vice president of product management, didn't work for the company at the time and only knew the Stanford University graduate students because one of her friends had dated Brin.
What is the address of the Google Garage? How can I visit the Google Garage?
The address is :
http://mrwavetheory.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-buys-garage-for-13-million.html