IBM La Gaude set off again in a very strong way, on Internet and mobility.
Big Blue, the French Riviera firm, had already reoriented its activity on the e-business, in such a very high way that its director, Christian Poujardieu, had launched the concept of e-business city on La Gaude. The repositioning has given a new boost to the firm. Therefore, a plan to hire about 80 engineers (solution architects, network managers, middleware engineers) had already been set up, during the year.
Since the beginning of the week, a very ambitious plan has been scaled up. Indeed, IBM La Gaude has been entrusted with a new mission : to establish a world base of research and development on the technologies that will be implemented for mobiles with WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and then for the UMTS, the third generation of mobiles. In the wake, a further recruitment of around fifty engineers has also been launched. It is even made clear that the positions are already available ! Thus, considering about twenty leavings (retirements, resignations), the La Gaude staff should go from 750 to 850 people before the end of the year.