Microsoft Announces European Expansion
Steven Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, said at a news conference here that the three "centers of excellence," to be based near Paris, in London and in Munich, would employ several hundred people all together.
He declined to say how much the company would invest. But Microsoft, which has fought pitched battles with European regulators over its Windows operating system, said it was making a major commitment to Europe at a time when many companies were nervous about spending on new projects.
"Investing in anything at this time can be a tough sell," Ballmer said. "But when economic times are tough, we have to keep our faith in the promise that technology holds to transform the future."
Microsoft has been pushing to improve its ability to conduct Internet searches and to attract the advertising revenue that comes with them, following its failed bid to acquire Yahoo. Instead, Yahoo struck a deal with the market leader, Google, to share some search capabilities. "We are the challenger, not the leader, in search," Ballmer said. "But search is in its infancy, and there is so much room for innovation."
In Europe, where Google accounts for nearly 80 percent of Internet searches, according to the research company ComScore, it is even more dominant than in the United States, where it has a share of slightly more than 60 percent.
Microsoft has barely 1 percent of the European search market, according to ComScore. In some countries it trails local search engines.
In addition to working on improvements to Microsoft's existing search technology, Ballmer said, the European research centers...