Google buys a billion-dollar building in London

Google has bought a colorful office space in London for $1 billion while it waits for building work on its heavily-delayed U.K. headquarters to be completed.

The internet giant announced Friday that it has acquired all of the Central St. Giles building, where it already occupies a number of floors, in London’s West End.

Google plans to refurbish the office over the next few years, Harris said, adding that there will be collaboration spaces, team pods, and covered outdoor working spaces.

The firm employs 6,400 staff in the U.K. and the company has pledged to create enough U.K. office space for 10,000 in the coming years. Its main hub is in the recently gentrified King’s Cross neighborhood on the northern fringe of the city center, where it has snapped up several offices.

However, its new U.K. headquarters, which sits on a plot behind King’s Cross train station, is still under construction.