14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Chief Executive office Steve Ballmer has characterized Google's hiring pace as insane. Although the Mountain View search giant is focused exclusively on the Internet search and advertising business, the employee base increase accurately reflects the growth of the company. But Google is a midget compared to the mass of Microsoft.
The Redmond juggernaut accounts - after three decades of existence - for in excess of 75,000 employees worldwide. And Microsoft's momentum has slowed down, almost to a halt. This is why Google's 10,674 employees in 2007, up no less than 88% from the past year, seems insane to Ballmer. With an internal structure seven times that of Google, Microsoft digests its growth at a very slow pace.
But Microsoft is experiencing growth nonetheless. There is little doubt about that. In fact, at the end of 2006, Microsoft revealed plans to expand the current Redmond campus by one third of its size in order to assimilate newcomers to the company.
Additionally, in early April 2006, the Redmond Company announced that it would grow its center of gravity in the City of Bellevue, Wash. Microsoft was announcing an extra 1.3 million square feet of office space and disclosed that its work force had also jumped to over 76,000 with "35,000 workers in the region and another 41,000 globally."
Well, as of May 22, Microsoft will also make room for an additional 575 employees with an expansion of the Fargo, N.D., campus by 185,000 square feet. "The Microsoft Fargo location has significantly expanded its charter over the past several years, and today the campus is home to teams from across the company," said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. "The expansion we are announcing today is very exciting and will help position us to keep pace with our growth and the changing needs of our business."
Microsoft will not only add a 65,000-square-foot expansion to the existing Horizon Building, but also a third 120,000-square-foot building. According to the Redmond Company, the extra elbow room will be ready by 2009.