Wednesday, April 23, 2008
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has confirmed that it is establishing a research and development facility in Bochum, Germany. The R&D centre will employ 140 when it opens in the summer, and RIM plans to increase this to 500 over a short period, recruiting mainly software development engineers.
The Waterloo, Canada headquartered company is investing an initial $45 million in the venture.
RIM said the facility will work closely with surrounding universities and research institutes, and focus on hardware and software development and applications for the BlackBerry.
The facility will be based in the Uni-Tech-Center on the campus of Ruhr-Universität, Bochum.
Reports started emerging last week that RIM was planning to establish such a facility, just as Nokia is about to close a plant in the city and move mobile phone production to Romania.
Mike Lazaridis, Founder, President and co-CEO of Research In Motion said: "This new R&D facility will play a pivotal role in extending RIM's leadership in the smartphone market as we continue to focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers."
"RIMs decision underlines the quality of universities and scientific institutes in this region. The area is an innovation powerhouse with a global reputation and we are delighted RIM has selected Bochum as the home of its new R&D facility," said North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Economics, Christa Thoben.
By: DocMemory
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