Microsoft Vancouver: Stirring controversy back home
While received as a big blast of good economic news here in Vancouver, BC, Microsoft's decision to open a software development studio in the Great White North is stirring some controversy back home, says the Seattle P.I.
If you look at the numbers of Microsoft employees in Washington state, the rest of the US, internationally and here in Canada, the vast majority are still based at the Redmond, WA campus. Over 35,000 employees are there as opposed to just over 200 planned for Vancouver.
The debate over immigration in the US is interesting to watch, and the Microsoft move to open a northern operation just adds fuel to the debate.
People around here forget that Microsoft used to own a Vancouver-based operation in the early 1990s. Consumer Software as it was known, developed a desktop client for a new-fangled tool called "E-mail". In fact, Vancouver coders helped to architect what would become the most used software application in history, Microsoft Exchange, later known as Outlook and Outlook Express.
A whole bunch of Vancouver kids were moved down to the Redmond operation, and Consumer Software (don't know if it was ever called "Microsoft Vancouver") closed. Those young coders and project leads all went on to become Microsoft multi-millionaires.
So, welcome back, Microsoft. Maybe Vancouver is just the injection of talent and creativity your company needs to get back on top.
Tagged: microsoft, outlook