MS opens R&D centre in B'lore

According to the 10- year deal signed in July 2009 between the two, MS will provide job opportunity for 400 Yahoo! employees, said Microsoft Online Services Division (OSD) Senior Vice-President R&D Satya Nadella.

“The Bangalore centre will have dedicated team for online services of Microsoft whose priority for next 12 months will be to build India unique features on the online platform,” he added. As per the deal, both Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing will maintain their own brand, while, Microsoft will support Yahoo! and Yahoo! will attract premium advertisement.

Further, he said, majority of projects as part of global partnership will happen out of India, and other work will be done out of centres in Silicon Valley and other R&D centres. The company believes this alliance can create a huge competition for Google both in the US and in India. It also expects to complete the transition by September 2010.

Microsoft India Corporate Vice-President and Managing Director Srini Koppolu said, “We will continue to grow our existing development centre in Hyderabad. However, our initial focus in Bangalore would be on R&D in search and online advertisement technologies.”