Fantastic Factoid

Chris Byron views any company's balance sheet as a target-rich environment and this morning he sets his sights on AOL Time Warner. Most of what he reports you have probably read before. But there's one nugget that jumps off the page:

Did you know, for example, that AOL Time Warner, at latest tally, has nearly 13 million square feet of office space on its books? That is twice the entire square footage of the Pentagon, recognized to be the largest office building on earth.

And folks, we're not even including that sprawling, 2 million-square-foot office complex now under construction at Columbus Circle, which will be one-third the size of the Pentagon all by itself.

Assuming AOL Time Warner management cut this glut of office space in half and sublet out 7.5 million square feet at an average cost of $60 per square foot, the company would save $450 million in overhead costs and gain about that amount in rental income. On the other hand, big offices are impressive, especially to the egomaniacs who occupy them.