BANGALORE: The Indian unit of Sun Microsystems Inc, the world's leading maker
of computer servers, will invest $20 million in the next 6-9 months to expand
its operations in the country, a senior official said on Thursday.
"Of this, $6.5 million will be invested in marketing and advertising our
initiatives, $3.5 million in new facilities and $10 million in services and
support infrastructure," Bhaskar Pramanik, head of Sun's Indian operations,
told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference.
Pramanik said that Sun would also double the staff at its Indian software
development center to 543 engineers by this June from 266 at the end of
December, and plans to double the number again over the following year. "We
hope to further grow to 1,000 engineers by June 2002," Pramanik said.
Earlier, Pramanik said Sun's revenue from India surged by 184 per cent in the
second half of 2000 compared to the same period a year earlier, without giving
further details.
Last year, Sun invested $9.5 million to expand its facilities in India and
another $6 million to launch its "iForce" initiative, which provides
easier access to Sun technology and services to Internet-based companies.
Sun Micro currently has an engineering center, competency centers, Java
solutions centers and sales offices in India.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.