BANGALORE: California-based social networking site LinkedIn recently booked 74,341 sq ft of office space in Prestige Technology Park in Bangalore at 43 per sq ft, people familiar with the transaction said, establishing the fact that leading technology firms are investing in additional space in Bangalore.
“The new office space in Bangalore will house employees across functions, including customer service, engineering, sales and marketing,” said LinkedIn India Country Manager Nishant Rao.
The company has taken up space for consolidating its existing offices while the rest will be used for growth. “The new facility can seat 750 people and will be mostly used for expansion. It has also taken into account growth for three years,” said a person having direct knowledge of the transaction. LinkedIn has 150 employees in India as on December 2012.
The transaction was handled by property consultant DTZ.
LinkedIn India is headquartered in Mumbai with two offices in Gurgaon and a technology centre in Bangalore, the first outside the US. Situated at the Bagmane Technology Park, the LinkedIn Technology’s R&D centre is its fourth office in the Indian market. The world’s largest professional networking site, with over 20 million users in India, has added five million more users in the past 12 months ended March 2013.
India, with 100 million Internet users, provides the second largest user base for LinkedIn, after the US, where it has 74 million users.
LinkedIn has launched a series of new products to make things easier for users and its premium offerings in India. ING Vysya, HCL TechnologiesBSE 2.79 % and WABAG are among the companies that are extensively using LinkedIn Talent Solutions to establish an employment brand, develop their career pages and boost their recruiters’ ability to identify and connect with the best talent.
“Having grown by almost 500% since LinkedIn India started operations in November 2009, the 20 million members account for about 9% of LinkedIn’s global members (225+ million),” said Rao.
The 22-acre Prestige Tech Park has three independent towers having two wings each of an average floor plot size of 40, 000 sq ft. It houses some big companies such as JP Morgan, Quintiles, and Adobe. Private Equity fund Red Fort Capital had invested $35 million ( Rs 157.54 crore) in the tech park in January 2007.
Typically, leasing of commercial real estate is a good indicator of a country’s business outlook. According to Cushman & Wakefield, office markets in India registered a downward spiral in absorption in the first three month of the year.
Source: The Economic Times