Google買下出生地

【經濟日報／編譯謝璦竹／美聯社舊金山二日電】 2006.10.03 03:53 am

Google已買下這棟位於舊金山灣西岸門洛公園市的房子，列為公司的文化遺產。八年前布林和佩吉就是在這棟房子的車庫創辦Google，當年的房東伍西基現在是Google的產品管理部副總裁。 （美聯社） 網路搜尋引擎龍頭Google公司已買下八年前創業的車庫所在的房產，將保存為Google的文化遺產。 這棟位於舊金山灣西岸門洛公園市（Menlo Park）的房子占地1,900平方呎，原本為Google產品管理部副總裁伍西基（Susan Wojcicki）所有。當初沃西基機緣巧合把車庫租給兩位Google共同創辦人布林與佩吉，是因為1,700美元的月租對清償她的房貸不無小補。 伍西基回憶，當時年僅25歲的兩位史丹福碩士，整天不是黏在電腦前研究他們的搜尋引擎，就是躺在浴缸泡熱水澡；這個浴缸目前也還保存完好。布林與佩吉還有一個癖好，就是洗劫伍西基的冰箱；後來Google免費提供8,000名員工自助餐，靈感應來自當初這個習慣。 布林與佩吉進駐伍西基家的車庫開始創業時，Google只有100萬美元資金，五個月後因為公司擴張太快，不得不另選公司所在地。如今Google有100億美元現金資產，公司市值達1,250 億美元。 Google的快速崛起已成為矽谷另一個傳奇。同樣從車庫起家而為人津津樂道的傳奇還有惠普與蘋果電腦。 惠普出自帕羅奧多市一間車庫，不遠的洛斯阿圖斯市則有喬布斯與伍茲尼克(Steve Wozniak)創立蘋果電腦時的車庫。 1938年，惠普共同創辦人惠利特租下帕羅奧多市長12呎寬18呎的車庫時，月租為45美元，後來惠普以170萬美元買下它。 Google沒有透漏花多少錢買這棟房子，不過鄰近地區類似的房子價值約在100萬到130萬美元間。今年稍早，Google才在創業車庫以南六哩處，花3.19億美元著手興建占地100萬平方呎的新總部。 雖然Google的創業車庫還不算是歷史古蹟，但現在已有不少遊客特地到此拍照留念。遊覽車載來成群遊客，造成伍西基不小的困擾。為此，Google特別請求記者不要寫出這棟房子的地址，不過這也是禮貌而已，因為上Google網站一查，很容易就可查到。 【2006/10/03 經濟日報】

Google buys its founding garage

Google was founded in the garage of this home in 1998

Internet giant Google has bought a landmark in its history - the suburban home where it was founded in 1998.

Google has paid an undisclosed fee for the property in Menlo Park, California, where Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the business from a garage.

At the time Google has $1m (£535,000) in funds, compared with £10bn in cash reserves today and a total market value of $125bn.

Google bought the property from one of its employees, Susan Wojcicki.

Monthly rent

Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded Google in 1998

Ms Wojcicki did not work for Google in 1998, and only knew the then 25-year-old Stanford University students because one of her friends had dated Mr Brin.

She agreed to rent them her garage for $1,700 a month, where they stayed for five months.

Ms Wojcicki is now Google's vice president of product management, and works at the firm's headquarters in the nearby town of Mountain View.

Google has declined to say how much it paid for the Menlo Park home, but similar detached properties in the neighbourhood sell for between $1.1m and $1.3m.

In 2004, Hewlett-Packard - which started out as a manufacturer of test equipment - paid $1.7m for the garage where it was founded in the Californian town of Palo Alto in 1938.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5399302.stm