In what is perhaps a sign of the times during Covid-19, Google has decided against renting office space in Dublin for up to 2,000 employees.
Google and parent Alphabet had conducted negotiations to rent about 202,000 square feet of office space at the Sorting Office, which is next to the Irish capital's south quays, according to a story by Bloomberg.
“After much deliberation, Google has decided not to proceed with leasing the Sorting Office,” said a Google spokesperson, in an email Tuesday morning to FierceTelecom. "We are committed to Ireland and continue to invest in our Irish operations."
While Google didn't provide any additional details in regards to not renting the office space, its decision not to do so could be related having its employees work remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic. In July, Google announced that most of its employees would be allowed to work from home until July 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a story by MarketWatch, Google has 8,000 employees in Ireland. In Dublin, Google employs thousands of workers and occupies offices around the city’s "Silicon Docks" area
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Across the telecoms industry, companies such as Google and Verizon are in the process of evaluating whether to bring remote workers back into office spaces. The planning process has been difficult as the coronavirus outbreaks ebb and flow around the globe.
Vendors such as Cisco, Juniper Networks and Arista Networks have seen their campus and branch revenues decline during the coronavirus pandemic due to "work from anywhere" scenarios. Service providers and vendors have started to offer more robust broadband offerings, which include better security, for work from home environments.