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Adobe to invest $ 50 million in Indian R&D expansion

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DQW Bureau
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Adobe Systems Inc will invest $ 50 million over a period of five years to expand its R&D activities in the country. The first phase of expansion which will see an investment of $ 10 million is expected to be completed by June 2002. During this phase, Adobe will recruit 300 engineers and build a 75,000 sq ft building in

NOIDA.

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During the second phase another built-up area of one lakh sq ft will be made to house an additional 500 engineers. The center is expected to contribute to the development of products for Adobe in areas of data import and export, mobile device, and image and video compression areas. According to Bruce Chizen, President and CEO, Adobe, the investment would be raised through a combination of direct FDI, debt, and internal accruals.

Adobe India, which was set up in 1998, has an existing R&D center in NOIDA with a capacity of 125 people. It currently employs 90 engineers. By 2006, the company has set itself a target of increasing the sales contribution from the country to five percent. The sales figure of Adobe India suffers massively due to the piracy rates in the country, which is as high as 90 percent, according to company officials. The company has undertaken many initiatives to fight the piracy problem.

Meanwhile, Adobe has launched another initiative which will see the company align with online book seller, www.firstandsecond.com and noted fiction writer Tara Deshpande to publish the first collaborative e-book on the Net. The e-book which will be called `The Launch of the Motive' has a unique approach in fiction writing wherein the lead author Deshpande will write the first chapter and put it up on the site www.themotive.net. Readers can download the first chapter from the site and write the second chapter. After screening all the responses, Deshpande will choose the best contribution and add it as the second chapter. Likewise, there will be seven chapters where alternate chapters will be written by the public and the best will be chosen. The last chapter will be written by Deshpande herself so that the story gets winded up in its logical conclusion.

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`The Launch of the Motive' is a thriller with the setting being in Mumbai. A political leader of repute is killed and the scene is thus thrown open for imagination to take flight.

The rights of the Internet version story will be held by Adobe and Firstandsecond.com. While contributors will not have any financial remuneration, the reward will be in the form of having an opportunity to get the work published and getting a joint authorship with Deshpande. The story is expected to be complete within two-and-a-half months, said

Deshpande.

She also said that she has not yet thought of the conclusion. "The beauty of the Internet is that barriers of time and space are transcended and a virtual book will be written with potential participation by people from across the globe," said

Deshpande.

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