Latest news with #GoogleInc.
Asahi Shimbun
22-05-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
After 26 years, NTT Docomo is retiring all its emojis in June
Japan's largest telecommunications operator NTT Docomo Inc. announced on May 21 that it is discontinuing its "Docomo Emoji" set that comes with each of its devices. The decision to phase them out was made "in light of the current status of emoji usage." The set will no longer appear on models released in late June and beyond; this applies to Android smartphones and Docomo cellphones. Galaxy series phones are briefly exempt as all new models from July will no longer feature the emojis. Those with older models will also see the set eventually disappear following a software update scheduled for October at the earliest. The company is calling for users to switch over to emojis created by Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Docomo's emojis were first introduced to cellphones in 1999 via the provider's "i-mode" internet connection service. They gained widespread use to supplement or substitute text in those early days of digital communication. These deceptively simple designs have significantly impacted overseas emoji culture as well. In 2016, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York acquired and exhibited that original 176-emoji set.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google to set sail in 35-story downtown Austin tower
After several delays over the past couple of years, Google Inc. has confirmed it will finally be moving into the high-profile, 35-story sail-shaped tower in downtown Austin this year. 'We look forward to opening our new Austin office at 601 W 2nd this year that deepens our longstanding commitment to Texas and the local community," Ryan Lamont, a Google spokesperson, said via email Tuesday. Six years ago, Google signed a lease for the entire building overlooking Lady Bird Lake. Completed in 2022, the building — one of the newest and most recognizable on Austin's skyline — is leased to Google through 2038. But the sail-shaped tower has sat empty due to the new world order that has defined the office market since the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in remote and hybrid work. Work-from-home has led to rising vacancy rates in many office buildings, both in Austin and around the country. On Tuesday, Google declined to say how many employees will be making the move into the Sail Tower, or when exactly that move will take place. The company also declined release an updated Austin headcount. One published report put the number at about 2,000 employees. Google had 183,323 employees globally, according to the company's latest annual report. More: Tech giant Google cuts hundreds of recruiters in recent layoffs; Austin impact unknown Atlanta-based Cousins Property, a real estate investment trust, bought the so-called Sail Tower in December for a net purchase price of $521.8 million. The acquisition was the biggest sale of an office property in Austin in 2024. Cousins is the largest office owner in the Austin market with more than 5 million square feet of primely located office space, including downtown and at the Domain mixed-use development in North Austin. More: IBM signs lease for entire 15-story office tower at Austin's Domain mixed-use development Google did not comment on the status of any of its other office leases in Austin, including those previously reported at 500 W. Second St., next to the sail-shaped building, and at the Saltillo mixed-use project in East Austin. Google has called Texas home since 2007. More: Google leasing big chunk of new downtown Austin tower "We have an office presence across the state in Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as a data center in Midlothian and a new planned data center in Red Oak," Lamont said Tuesday. Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and MSD Capital began construction on the sail-shaped tower in January 2019. MSD invests on behalf of Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, his family and other investors. The 804,000-square-foot Sail Tower at West Cesar Chavez and Nueces streets is near the Second Street entertainment district downtown, and it has unobstructed views of Lady Bird Lake. It is just a few blocks from Cousins' existing downtown Austin office-building portfolio, which has 1.7 million square feet of space. "We are thrilled to add this iconic office property, with a strong investment grade customer, to our Austin portfolio," Colin Connolly, president and chief executive officer of Cousins Properties, said in a statemen in December. "Austin continues to exhibit strong demand fundamentals, attracting top talent and growing companies. This exciting transaction enables Cousins to enhance the quality of our leading lifestyle office portfolio and is immediately accretive to earnings." In North Austin, Cousins also is the largest owner of office space in the large, mixed-use Domain project, where Cousins' office holdings total about 2.5 million square feet of space across 11 buildings. More: Apartment tower to kick off Green Water redevelopment Eastdil Secured advised Trammell Crow in the Sail Tower purchase. The office high-rise was the last phase of a major redevelopment project that began in 2012, transforming downtown's Green Water Treatment Plant site into a large mixed-use made headlines when news broke several years ago that it would lease the entire sail-shaped tower. Austin is one of Google's largest hubs. In June 2023, a Google spokeswoman said in an email that as the company worked "to ensure that our real estate investments match the needs of our hybrid workforce, we're delaying moving into our leased space in 601 W. 2nd Street. We remain committed to our longstanding presence in Austin and investing in the local community."The spokeswoman said: "The lease on our space in 100 Congress expires in September 2023, which provided an opportunity for a careful review of our real estate footprint in Austin. Our analysis confirmed that we're able to accommodate our current space needs within our existing offices at 901 E. 5th St. and 500 West 2nd St." After the sail building, the second-largest office sale in Austin last year was for the Mueller Business District Bravo Building, a new 245,000-square-foot building in East Austin, acquired by the Teachers Retirement System of Texas in March. Before the sail-building purchase, Cousins made news when IBM said it would lease an entire 15-story office tower with 320,000 square feet of space in a Cousins' building at the Domain. IBM took over the lease from Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent company. IBM will assume the lease Jan. 1, 2026, and extend its term from 2031 to 2040. Other Cousins tenants at the Domain include Amazon, Expedia, Adobe and Fidelity. When Cousins bought Sail Tower, office brokers said it marked a milestone for the local office market, which has been in a slump like many office markets as employees have worked from home or on a hybrid basis. More: Almost a quarter of Austin-area office space sits empty, but the news isn't all bleak 'It's a testament to the confidence Cousins Properties and other office owners/investors have in the Austin market, despite ongoing challenges," Rick Whiteley, executive director of commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, said in December. With Google as a tenant, "some of the transaction's risk is obviously mitigated," Whiteley said. "However, a sale of this magnitude indicates a bullish outlook on the long-term future of the Austin office market." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Googlers due to move into sail-shaped downtown Austin tower this year
