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Microsoft today announced that they will be opening a new software development center in Canada:
Microsoft Corp. today announced that it intends to expand its presence in Canada by opening a new software development center in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia, area. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will open in the fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.
“Microsoft is a global company, and our greatest asset is smart, talented, highly skilled people,” said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “Our goal as a company is to attract the next generation of leading software developers from all parts of the world, and this center will be a beacon for some of that talent.”
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The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft’s corporate offices in Redmond and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.
Since S. “Soma” Somasegar is providing the quote, one suspects it will be a developer tools oriented center. I hope they have their real estate lined up already – otherwise, the price just went up. Update: Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos is downplaying the immigration angle and says the center will initially have 200 employees.
Meanwhile, back in Redmond, Microsoft bought an unused 28 acre parcel from Nintendo of America:
Nintendo Co. said Tuesday that it reached a deal to sell Microsoft a vacant 28-acre parcel across from Nintendo’s North American headquarters. The agreement confirms widespread assumptions that Microsoft would buy the land.
Microsoft will keep the land in reserve for possible development in the future and use it to help alleviate a parking shortage in the meantime, said Lou Gellos, a company spokesman. The parking garages at the company’s adjacent RedWest campus are often filled to capacity.
The deal will close in mid-July at which point the price will be known.
IT infrastructure services company Savvis Inc. announced on Friday that it had sold two adjoining data centers in Santa Clara, California to Microsoft for $200 million. Microsoft had been the only occupant of the data centers which contain 250,000 sq. ft. of floor space and the sale rmarked the termination of a long term colocation contract which had been set to expire in 2010.
The San Antonio rumors have borne fruit as Microsoft announced today that they will be building one of their mega datacenters for online services in San Antonio although the price tag is about half that rumored:
Microsoft Corp. announced Thursday that will build a $550 million data center in San Antonio to house its growing online services.
The 400,000-square-foot facility will be the software giant’s first major data center in Texas.
The data center will house tens of thousands of computers for Internet services like Microsoft’s Windows Live offerings, which include everything from instant messaging to e-mail, said Mike Manos, Microsoft senior director of data centers.
To entice Microsoft, which will eventually employ about 75 people at the site, the city approved a tax abatement package that will run over the next 10 years.
Mayor Phil Hardberger said the incentive will help turn vacant land within the city into a revenue-producer, bringing more tax dollars to the city and the schools. The data center will also use electricity from the municipal power company, generating roughly $1.4 million extra annually for San Antonio.
Once Microsoft closes on the 40-acre property, construction will take 1 1/2 to 2 years, Manos said.
City officials, appearing at a news conference with Manos, were jubilant at the arrival of one of the nation’s largest companies.
More details on the property tax abatement here, but it’s par for the course these days. The last big Microsoft data center was in Quincy, Washington – who’s next?
The rumor that Microsoft is planning on building one of the new breed of mega datacenters for online services outside San Antonio, Texas is back with more details:
Microsoft Corp. confirmed Friday that it’s looking at San Antonio for a new building, and people close to the deal say the software giant is close to announcing plans to build a huge $980 million data center in Westover Hills.
Microsoft is looking to create a 470,000-square-foot structure that would employ about 100 people and would be next to the $68 million Lowe’s Cos. Inc.’s data center announced earlier this year, according to a source with knowledge of the project. The data centers will be near each other so they can share some infrastructure related to cooling the buildings, he said.
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The company is attracted to the San Antonio area because of its reliable and relatively inexpensive power, according to the source, who requested anonymity. Microsoft’s data center could consume more electricity than Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Texas’ new truck plant.
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“It appears everything is moving right,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “We hope to have something to announce after the first of the year.”
As is common these days the city and county apparently offered various economic incentives, but in an interesting twist the city gets a cut of the revenues of the local electrical utility so there are more than the usual visions of sugarplums.
