Google purchases the garage where it all began

Google purchases the garage where it all began
SAN FRANCISCO - Internet search engine giant Google Inc. went back to its roots as it purchased the Silicon Valley home where Google was launched eight years ago, by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Page and Brin rented the garage for $1,700 per month and it was the home to Google for 5 months. Susan Wojcicki, the owner of the house, had agreed to rent the space as she was in need of the money to help meet the payments for the mortgage. Wojcicki knew about the Stanford University graduate students, then just 25 years old, only after one of her friends had dated Brin. Wojcicki now works at Google as the vice president of product management.

At the time of their stay at the house near Menlo Park, Google was freshly incorporated and had a bankroll of $1 million, thanks to some investors. Now Google boasts of over $10 billion and commands a market value of over $125 billion. Wojcicki revealed that both Page and Brin always seemed to either work frantically on their search engine or just soak up in a bathtub, which incidentally still exists on the property. She added that both the students liked to raid her refrigerator at frequent intervals.

This is not a first instance of a global company buying up the place from where it started. Last year, Hewlett-Packard bought the 12-by-18-foot garage, which its co-founder, William Hewlett rented at $45 per month. HP paid out almost $1.7 million for the property. Though Google has declined to reveal the exact figure paid out by them, neighboring properties of similar size have been sold in $1.1 million to $1.3 million range. Google added that they have not yet made a definite decision as to in what way to use the property but added that it could be used as a guesthouse. Google spokesman Jon Murchinson said, "We plan to preserve the property as a part of our living legacy".