Google buys New York office building for $1.9B

Google isn’t just a big spender when it comes to acquiring startups. The company has purchased the building holding its main New York City office for a reported $1.9 billion.

A post on the official company blog announced the purchase this morning, describing it as “a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.” Google isn’t revealing the price, but The New York Post reports that it’s a $1.77 billion cash deal and that with taxes and fees, the company’s total cost will be $1.9 billion.

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Google’s NYC office includes engineers and its North American sales team. The company says its presence in the city began with a single ad person in 2000, and then it moved into its current office at 111 Eighth Ave in 2006. There are now 2,000 Googlers in New York, Google says, and it’s still hiring.

One reason the company may want to expand its presence is an increased emphasis on display advertising (as opposed to the simple text links that show up alongside its search results). The company recently said it’s on-track to make $2.5 billion from display ads per year.

Facebook, meanwhile, is also building its New York presence. We’ve heard it has leased two floors on Madison Avenue, the address traditionally associated with the advertising industry.