Press release
Facility will drive technology development for Yahoo! across Europe and contribute to growth of Yahoo! ecosystem
Grenoble, France; 24th September 2008: Yahoo! today officially opened the new offices of the Yahoo! R&D centre in Grenoble, France, in the presence of Madame Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment.
The Grenoble centre is a key addition to Yahoo!'s global engineering and design hubs and will focus on key strategic priorities for Yahoo! including the global development of Yahoo! Answers and continuing development of Yahoo! Search, together with the much heralded Semantic Search. Yahoo!'s presence in Grenoble, which is fast becoming the "Silicon Valley of Europe", will also enable the company to tap in to one of the industry's biggest pools of future engineering and design talent.
"Yahoo!'s heritage is rooted in innovation. With the opening of this world-class facility, we will have the opportunity to work with some of the most talented engineers and draw on their expertise as we continue to develop our brilliant ecosystem of products and services," said John Linwood, Senior Vice President, International Engineering, Yahoo!.
"The investment we celebrate today reflects our government's strategy regarding globalization, which is to bet on research and intelligence. France is indeed a land of innovation, and the decision of Yahoo! to install and develop its R&D teams here is proof of that." said Christine Lagarde, Minister of Finance of France.
Yahoo! is focused on attracting and retaining some of Europe's top engineering talent. Engineers at the new centre will be focused on creating a centre of excellence for quality and service engineering across the portfolio of Yahoo! products. Another key area of development is the creation of the patented comparison shopping technology used by Kelkoo, the major comparison shopping player with sites in 10 countries and languages across Europe.
The new site at Grenoble further demonstrates Yahoo!'s commitment to continuing product innovation and will strengthen Yahoo!'s presence in Europe as Grenoble joins the company's network of talent hubs around the globe with the purpose of enhancing and building brilliant products that delight users.
