• The Wall Street Journal, Friday, December 3, 2010 2:24 PM

From Madison Avenue to Silicon Alley, it looks like Google has truly taken a shine to the Big Apple. Indeed, sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the search giant has signed a contract worth nearly $2 billion to buy the building that houses its New York City offices.

In grand Google fashion, "The deal for the massive 2.9-million-square-foot property at 111 Eighth Avenue is the biggest for a single building in the U.S. this year," The Journal reports. Tenants include Nike, the Lifetime cable channel and WebMD, while about a third of its space is reportedly occupied by telecommunication companies. Google itself occupies about 500,000 square feet in the building, and earlier this fall was reported to be a front-runner in the bidding for the property. While the deal could still fall apart, The Journal says it's unlikely because the contract is binding and Google has already plunked down a large deposit. Thanks, AdSense!

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »