Just days after Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERIC) CTO said North America is leading Europe in 5G, the vendor announced it is building a new Silicon Valley campus that will consolidate some 2,000 Ericsson staffers involved with R&D in IP, TV and media, network virtualization and wireless technologies.
The Santa Clara, Calif., facility will consist of more than 400,000 square feet of operational space in two buildings and will include a new Ericsson Experience Center for customers and partners. The facility should be ready for initial occupancy during the third quarter of 2015.
Silicon Valley has been the center of development for Ericsson's IP solutions since 2009, and the company was widely expected to ramp up its presence in the region after acquiring Microsoft's Mediaroom TV platforms and services division in September 2013.
"Ericsson's expansion in Silicon Valley has grown in tandem with the region's increasing gravitational pull on the technology sector," said Bina Chaurasia, Ericsson's chief human resources officer, who is relocating to the Bay Area.
"Our company has a growing need for software engineers and employees with a technology savvy skill set who can partner, create, learn, sustain and innovate; helping us move toward what Ericsson calls the 'Networked Society,'" she added.
Ericsson CTO Ulf Ewaldsson may have had plans for Ericsson's Silicon Valley campus on his mind when he recently commented, "North America is driving LTE and new networks rather than Europe." He made his remarks in an effort to lobby for more European public-sector investment in 5G and related technologies.
Maya Strelar-Migotti, vice president of development unit IP and broadband and head of Ericsson Silicon Valley, said Ericsson's expanding presence in Silicon Valley over the years has enhanced its ability to work with customers and partners in the region.
The Swedish vendor notes it collaborates with Silicon Valley partners such as the AT&T Foundry, Facebook and the Linux Foundation OpenDaylight Project. In February, Ericsson announced its OpenDaylight Community Lab in San Jose, Calif., created to accelerate availability of software-defined networking applications. The Ericsson OpenDaylight and smartphone labs will relocate to the new facility.
In February, Ericsson also announced that it will launch an Internet.org Innovation Lab on Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) Menlo Park, Calif., campus this summer, and plans for that facility remain intact.
Ericsson has 15,000 total employees across the United States and Canada. The company noted it has invested $7 billion in U.S. acquisitions over the past six years and has "plans for further growth and technology leadership in the U.S."
For more:
- see this release
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