The center, called HP Labs Russia, will be based in St. Petersburg, Hewlett-Packard Co. said yesterday in a statement. The Palo Alto, California-based company is seeking a director and staff for the new lab. Hewlett-Packard, which spent $3.59 billion (ˆ2.77 billion) on research and development last year, has 650 scientists in its HP Labs division.

In addition to the main center at company headquarters, HP Labs has facilities in Bristol, UK, Haifa, Israel, and Tokyo. The company added HP Labs India in Bangalore in 2002 and opened a center in Beijing in 2005. „When we look at expanding our R&D presence, we always look at countries where our business is growing and where the scientific talent is,” said Beth Keer, director of HP's information-services lab, who will oversee the St. Petersburg group. „The Russian economy is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and we have a large and growing number of customers there.”

The Russian lab will hire a few researchers at first and grow to „a couple of dozen” scientists, Keer said. Like Hewlett-Packard's other labs, scientists in Russia will collaborate on projects with local universities, other research centers and customers, with a focus on developing ways to manage information, she said. Shares of Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest personal-computer maker, rose 2 cents to $42.02 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They gained 44% last year. (Bloomberg)

News source: bbj.hu
Print this news