MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 6, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. President Steve Ballmer today announced the establishment of a new Microsoft campus in Mountain View, Calif., to better meet the needs of Silicon Valley developers and customers and to centralize the location of nearly 800 employees who currently work at various sites throughout the Valley.
Ballmer said a central element of the 32-acre campus will be a Development Laboratory and Developer Community Center, designed to provide the latest resources and technology to support the work of more than 1,200 independent developers for Windows® in Silicon Valley.
In addition to the development lab and community center, Microsoft’s new campus will centralize the location of various Microsoft business groups:
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The Graphics Product Unit, responsible for the development, testing, program management and product planning for the Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation graphics program for the Windows operating system and drawing functionality for Office for Windows
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Hotmail, creators of the world’s largest free Web-based e-mail service, with more than 20 million members
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Macintosh Internet Products Group, part of the Macintosh Business Unit, responsible for the design and development of Internet Explorer for Macintosh, Microsoft Outlook
™
Express for Macintosh, Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (VM) for the Macintosh, and other supporting products and technologies -
The Macintosh PowerPoint Product Unit, also part of the Macintosh Business Unit, provides development, testing and program management for PowerPoint for Macintosh
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The Web Essentials Development Group, responsible for Hotmail technologies, Internet-based storage and file replication, as well as integrating a variety of Microsoft technologies with Hotmail
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WebTV Networks, Inc., developers of the WebTV Network
™service (with more than 400,000 subscribers), WebTV® Internet terminal and WebTV Plus Receiver -
Portions of Microsoft’s Bay Area sales and marketing staff
“The creation of a new campus in Silicon Valley underscores Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to its employees, partners and customers in the Valley,”
Ballmer said.
“Microsoft first established an office in the Valley 17 years ago. From those first five employees in 1981, our ranks have grown to nearly 800, making us one of the larger technology employers in the Valley.”
The new campus will ensure stronger coordination, efficiency and integration among the various Microsoft teams in the area. It also is close to hundreds of Microsoft customers and software developers in the Valley.
“I’m particularly excited about how the new development lab will enable us to better support the efforts of hundreds of software developers in the Valley,”
Ballmer said. The new lab will allow as many as five companies at a time to work with Microsoft technical evangelists on development of new software applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system, with more than 500 third-party developers expected to utilize the lab annually. The addition of a Valley-based Microsoft Development Lab will help to significantly reduce travel time and costs and increase productivity for the hundreds of Valley-based independent software vendors (ISVs) who in the past made the trip to Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., Development Lab each year.
In addition to hands-on assistance and support from Microsoft technical staff, the lab and community center will also host educational and business opportunities for third-party developers, such as user group meetings, training sessions, informal networking events and more. Later this year, the development lab is scheduled to open in temporary facilities in Palo Alto until its new home in the Mountain View campus is ready for occupancy in 1999.
“On behalf of Mountain View’s City Council, staff and citizens, I would like to say how very pleased we are that Microsoft has chosen the city of Mountain View as the home of its new campus,”
said Mary Lou Zoglin, vice mayor of Mountain View.
“Mountain View will be good for Microsoft, and Microsoft will be very good for Mountain View. The benefits to the community will be substantial, providing new opportunities for businesses in the area and contributing to the economic vitality of the city. The 800 employees initially headquartered here will bring a wealth of new talent to Mountain View’s civic life as well as to Microsoft’s local associates and customers. Microsoft, we offer you a very big welcome – in capital letters – to the city of Mountain View.”
Becky Morgan, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, said,
“Microsoft has long been a good technology partner in the Valley. This new campus is the latest indication that Microsoft is committed to the long-term future of the region and to the hundreds of other technology companies who call the Valley home.”
“We are excited to see Microsoft’s increased efforts for the Silicon Valley development community,”
said Kirsten Berg-Painter, vice president of worldwide marketing for Clarify Inc., a leading provider of integrated front office solutions for sales, marketing, service and support headquartered in San Jose.
“A number of Clarify customers run their front office applications on the Microsoft platform, including ADP, the world’s largest payroll processing company. Clarify’s strategic relationship with Microsoft has helped us provide our customers with a highly scalable, cost-effective solution. The creation of a local Microsoft campus and increased Microsoft development resources in the area will enable Clarify to further speed the development of solutions on the Microsoft platform.”
When it is completed, the five-building campus will provide 515,000 square feet of work space. The new campus site is bordered by U.S. Highway 101, Macon Avenue and L’Avenida, in the Shoreline area of Mountain View. Preliminary site development already is under way, with construction expected to be completed in the summer of 1999. Barrett Quezada Architecture of San Francisco is the architect for the project, and Rudolph & Sletten of Foster City is the general contractor.
A Microsoft sales office in Foster City, Calif., the Bay Area Research Center in San Francisco and the San Francisco Sidewalk
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office are scheduled to remain in their respective cities.
In addition to launching the new campus, Ballmer met Thursday with representatives of a number of Valley technology start-ups and with CIOs of Bay Area companies to discuss a variety of issues related to present and future technologies.
“One of my top priorities as president of Microsoft is spending more time talking with and listening to customers, partners and other technology companies,”
Ballmer said.
“The time I spent this morning with Valley start-ups and Bay Area companies was a great opportunity to exchange ideas and stay current on what everyone is doing. This kind of dialogue and cooperation really benefits everyone involved.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Windows, PowerPoint, Outlook, WebTV Network, WebTV and Sidewalk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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