14 DAY TRIAL // €5.58 billion spent on research and development in 2007 have made Microsoft Europe's No. 1 global investor in R&D. As a direct consequence, the Redmond company has climbed to the top of the European Commission’s 2008 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard report. Microsoft EMEA indicated that comes as the result of the strong focus and consistent financial resources poured into innovation. During his latest EU tour, Microsoft Chairman Steve Ballmer applauded the company's R&D investments in Europe and announced that the trend would continue to grow.
"Microsoft sees Europe as a critical innovation resource, central to its global R&D strategy, and has an expanding network of more than 40 research and development facilities in 19 EU nations,” Ballmer revealed. "To compete in a global, innovation-driven economy, we need to draw on the talent and skills of the world’s smartest, most creative minds. Increasingly, we are turning to Europe to find the talent we need. With 2,000 scientists, engineers, and developers, Europe has Microsoft’s largest concentration of R&D staff outside the United States."
While globally the corporate R&D investment has a growth rate of 9%, Microsoft’s own investments have jumped no less than 14.6% compared to the previous year. When he was in Europe at the start of the month, Ballmer announced a new European Search Technology Centre focused on R&D. Europe currently accounts for the largest Microsoft research and development workforce outside of the U.S.
“Microsoft has taken over the first position as global top R&D investor from Pfizer,” reads a fragment out of the 2008 Scoreboard report. “The regional distribution of the companies in the top 50 has not changed. The EU accounts for 18 companies among the top 50 R&D investors, the US for 20 and Japan for 9. Five out of the top 10 R&D investors are from the US, of which three are the world’s top R&D investors: Microsoft (€5.58 bn), General Motors (€5.54 bn) and Pfizer (€5.53 bn).”