Microsoft hunkers down in Silicon Valley, renews Mountain View lease

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Microsoft

Microsoft is staying put in Mountain View.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein: Real Estate Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal; Email | Twitter

Microsoft Corp. has decided to stick around at its longtime Mountain View digs.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker signed a lease with an affiliate of Silicon Valley real estate legend Carl Berg on Oct. 22 to remain in its 515,000-square-foot campus, according to public records and industry sources.
Microsoft signed for a five-year term, I'm told by a source with knowledge of the transaction. Microsoft also retains a right of first refusal on the sale of the property, meaning it has to be offered to the company first, before it could be sold to someone else.
Whether Microsoft would re-up with Berg, or go somewhere else, was a matter of some discussion within commercial real estate circles.
Microsoft has called the site on La Avenida St. home since the late-1990s, though it wasn't the first entry for Microsoft in the Valley: It first established a presence here in 1981with five employees. The Business Journal ranks Microsoft No. 37 on its most recent top Silicon Valley Employers list, with 2,000 workers.
Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia, announced in September, also gives the company 156,000 square feet in Sunnyvale.
In recent years, Microsoft's North Bayshore neighborhood has felt the squeeze from rival Google, which has gobbled up numerous properties in the area.
Indeed, Microsoft reportedly lost out to Google on Mountain View expansion plays in recent years (including the 30-acre campus known as The Quad, which Google leased in 2011). Google's buying and leasing spree has only accelerated in recent quarters.
Microsoft instead bulked up its local real estate holdings with a 240,000-square-foot lease at Moffett Towers in Sunnyvale that May.