Ericsson Plans Big Expansion in Silicon Valley
New 400,000-square-foot campus will house 2,000 Ericsson staff focused on R&D for IP, TV and Media, SDN, NFV, and mobile innovation.
Ericsson is planning to open a 400,000-square-foot R&D campus in Silicon Valley to house 2,000 of its staff focused on IP, TV and Media, SDN, NFV, and mobile innovation, the vendor announced Wednesday.
Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)'s ambitions plans for a state-of-the-art Experience Center and employee campus come after its acquisition of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Mediaroom TV platforms and services division closed in September. It has had a presence on the West coast since 2009, but says it will consolidate its Silicon Valley operations into the campus, which will take over two buildings in Santa Clara Square. (See Ericsson Closes Mediaroom Acquisition.)
Ericsson sounds like it will be channeling Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) in the new digs, with an "open and flexible workspace environment, which supports enhanced collaboration." In addition, its Experience Center will cater to customers and partners. The company has already broken ground and expects to open its doors in the third quarter of next year. (See Slide Show: Moto Mobility's New Chicago Digs.)
This marks a significant expansion for Ericsson and is partly designed to help it attract more software engineers and tech-savvy partners in its bid to build the "Networked Society." The company's Chief Human Resources Officer Bina Chaurasia will relocate to Silicon Valley to help with the recruitment side. (See Ericsson Names HR Head.)
The company says its current projects, including the Ericsson OpenDaylight and Smartphone Labs, will relocate to the new facility as well. (See Ericsson Launches OpenDaylight Lab.)
Interestingly, Ericsson's plans for Silicon Valley don't include mobile network security R&D at a time when its competitors are beefing up their practices. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) announced last week it is looking to sell its security division to Thales SA (Paris: TCFP.PA), while at the same time increasing its focus on offering security to network operators, and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) said Tuesday it is launching a new security unit to build up the security of its equipment and the services it offers. (See AlcaLu in Talks to Sell Security Unit to Thales and Eurobites: Mobily Shows Faith in NFV.)
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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