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The social network Facebook is set to open a sales office in Paris as part of plans to grow across Europe.

The site’s commercial director for EMEA Blake Chandlee has unveiled the office’s first employee Damien Vincent who has defected from MySpace France where he was head of sales. Facebook claims to have 6.1 million users in France and to have just reached the one million mark in Switzerland, adding to its 130 million users worldwide. Facebook translated the site into French in April and saw an immediate traffic boost, but it still trails in France to the Skyrock social net, which has more than 12 million users. Analysts France Pub estimate that digital advertising revenues have grown in France by €913 million (719 million) this year, up 23.4 percent on 2007.

Indian group Wipro technologies has decided to make France one of its European priorities.

Already based in Sophia-Antipolis, where it has a research and development centre, as well as in Clermont-Ferrand and Toulouse, the IT giant, whose head-quarters are based in Bangalore, has just announced the creation of an R&D centre in Rennes, with the help of the Invest in France Agency and its regional partners.
The new site in Rennes is in the process of being set up with the recruitment of 65 engineers in the next 12 months. The group was influenced by the presence of the innovation cluster Rennes Atalante, specialist in information and communication technology. It is also a location which allows Wipro to draw closer to its major telecommunication accounts. Wipro technologies already employs 200 people in France and wishes to double its staff by 2010/2011. The group does not exclude establishing other regional centres depending on future commercial opportunities.

This platform is to supply increasing traffic and demand coming from new shops in France, Spain and Portugal.

It will receive merchandise from suppliers all over the world in order to deliver across the 36 IKEA shops in the South-West European region. The site will employ 250 people in 2009 and a further 500 people in 2011/2012 when the second phase becomes operational.

Microsoft today announced its plan to open a new European Search Technology Centre with three centres of excellence : Paris, London and Munich.

The centre will be focused on developing a world-class search offering and will tap into local expertise and fuel local innovation with job opportunities that will help reinvent the European consumer online and search experience, notably in the French market.

Speaking at an event in Paris, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said, “To compete in a global, innovation-driven economy, we need to draw on the world’s smartest, most creative minds. Increasingly, we are finding the talent we need here in Europe. To tap into that talent, we’ve invested in research and development across the region and today, Europe is second only to the United States in the number of engineers and researchers we have working on creating innovative products and services."

In France, the Invest in France Agency and the Ile-de-France economic development agency helped and supported Microsoft with its project. "Microsoft’s decision to create an important R&D centre dedicated to search in Europe, with a strong presence in France, is a first which we salute,” said Christine Lagarde, the French Minister of Finance, “This is good news for the European Union, which decided long ago, with the Lisbon strategy, to go down the road of the knowledge-based economy. And it’s good news for France, which has demonstrated its desire to attract and welcome high value-added activities, particularly with its tax credit on research and development, one of the most advantageous in the world”.

The Swedish Studsvik, which specializes in research and studies in the field of civil nuclear, plans to recruit 100 people in two years.

Based in Sens, Studsvik France first plans to develop its expertise in engineering and the dismantling of sites and the efficiency of facilities. The Scandinavian parent gains 140 million euros in sales and employs 1,200 people in eight countries.