VeriSign opens research center in India

VeriSign, which provides infrastructure services to enable e-commerce and content delivery over the Internet, says it has opened a technology center in India that will be staffed by 200 workers by the end of 2007.

The company, which has about 600 R&D staff in the United States and 250 in Europe through an acquisition, is the latest among high-tech firms opening research centers in India's technology capital to boost growth.

VeriSign, which plans to invest $6.0 million this year in India, said the country was important to it both on account of the country's fast-expanding domestic telecommunications market and its experienced engineering talent not easily available elsewhere.

"Our goal was not cost-cutting or reducing head count in the U.S. but to manage product development and growth," said Manoj Srivastava, vice president of global product engineering.

He said VeriSign's head count will grow both in the United States and India but that the Indian unit will grow faster. Battle near for PDF market?

The company's Bangalore research center already has 40 people and the number will grow to between 100 and 125 by the end of this year, company executives told a news conference.

They said these would be in addition to 200 people the company has in India through two acquisitions, and more than 100 people indirectly working in outsourcing partner companies.

Officials said VeriSign would continue its relationship with Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, India's top two software service vendors, who would do specific projects while its own center would focus on product development or management software.