Google, LinkedIn swap property deal

Long-running real estate imbroglios between Google and LinkedIn have agreed to swap huge swathes of property, with no money changing hands. The deal started coming together last summer, when each company's Mountain View development plans faced roadblocks. Google, the largest landowner in North Bayshore, had just lost a city council vote for a futuristic new HQ and LinkedIn's plan to build a cohesive campus called Shoreline Commons would take five to six years. But then Jim Moregensen, LinkedIn's VP of workplace, invited David Radcliffe, Google's VP of real estate, to lunch at its Mountain View cafeteria. Together, they first floated the idea of a collaborative solution that would work for each company as well as the city, which built traffic caps into its land-use plans. Under this deal, Google forking over properties in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, while snapping up LinkedIn's real estate in the North Bayshore area, near its own HQ.