Hewlett-Packard zeroes in on Kochi

Hewlett-Packard India (HP) has zeroed in on Kochi for its new software development centre. The company has had an informal discussion with L&T for sharing the space at the latter's building, which is under construction.

L&T has taken four acres of land on a long lease near Infopark in Kochi to develop a technology park for IT units. The construction has begun and the project will be over in eight months.

"L&T will develop around 5 lakh square feet of space for IT companies as two towers. The two buildings named 'Tejaswini' and 'Swarnalaya' and the project will be over in 8 months," Infopark chief executive officer K G Girish Babu told Business Standard.

HP has evinced keen interest in acquiring one of the buildings completely. If that doesn't materialise, the company will be going in for some of the floors.

With Dubai Internet City planning to start Smart City at this place, HP is keen to locate there. Sources said that HP had plans to start own campus in Kochi with over 5,000 professionals. HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally.

The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, and global services. Its merger with Compaq Computer Corporation in 2002 forged a dynamic, powerful team of 140,000 employees with capabilities in 178 countries. Revenues for the combined companies are nearly $ 100 billion now.

HP established a presence in Asia Pacific in 1963 when the first office was set up in Japan. Today, the company has more than 36,000 employees in this region with operations in 14 countries "� Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

HP Labs in Bangalore was set up to create a world-class research lab, focusing on the needs of emerging markets such as India. It is one of the seven HP Labs sites worldwide.