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March 2008 : Cluj Rush on IT
The biggest Transylvanian city experiences an unprecedented demographic and real estate development. IT sector is amongst the quickest growing, being now famous inside and outside Romania. More and more IT specialist value a personally and professionally attractive city, human sized compared to the over-saturated capital.
February 2008 :
Still many Romanian IT companies are being bought by international groups ;
- InterAKT bought by Adobe Systems (Mountain View, California)
- IP Devel taken over by Adecco Group (Glattbrugg, Switzerland)
- Comsys acquired by Wind River Systems (Alameda, California)
January 2008 :
Production begins at the new Nokia factory in Cluj. 1500 people are forecast for this very fist step, plus subcontractors on the industrial park (which amount is not included in Nokia's figure).
March 2007 :
New client support service center launched by Microsoft in Romania to provide help to clients from Europe, Middle East and Africa. 100 highly qualified IT specialist will be hired from this year, then it will develop according to support demand (in 2010 it might reach750 staff knowing either English, German or French).
July 2006 : ATIC, Romanian Association for Information and Communication Technology issued its yearly report about this activity sector.
According to its calculations, Romanian IT sector dynamism ranks him at 10th position worldwide according to its growth.
It forecasts a still very strong growth in the next years, especially on software and services domains, whose turnover might climb from $ 200 millions in 2005 to $ 600 millions in 2009.
To sustain this development, the academic sector which, in IT domain, is amongst the best in the world, supplies 5000 new graduated IT specialists to 8000 software and services companies. (Even if many of these companies still have a modest size, a concentration movement has begun and is gaining speed.)
April 2006 :
Nokia, the world leader in mobile phone industry, announced that he will develop a research and development division in Cluj Napoca. It will be based on the recently purchased local division of American company Intellisync, which from now on will be called Nokia Enterprise Solutions Romania. When it was bought, this entity was amongst the world leaders on wireless mail platforms and mobile phone applications, with 100 employees, number that Nokia wants to increase in the next years.
March 2006 :
Romania attracts IT world leaders :
Giants such as IBM, Amazon, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard launch new center in Romania, intending to invest thousand millions € to produce hardware and soft ware.
The most targeted cities are, of course, Bucarest, the capital, because of its numerous population, but also the main cities from the West, ie Timisoara and Cluj Napoca
Notice : 95 % of products and Programs are produced by foreign companies.
November 2005 :
Softwin opens new development centers in Cluj Napoca and Iasi (Romania). Softwin decided to launch these two new R & D centers in Cluj Napoca and Iasi to strengthen its Antivirus analysis team. Bitdefender, which became an award from "Antivirus Test Center" institute (Germany) for being the world's most reactive against informatics treats.
October 2005 :
Google announces that from now on, he will also recruit Romanian developers. Those who will be selected will work in its development center in Zurich, Switzerland
July 2005 : The irresistible attraction of Romanian software :
Intel justs announced that he acquired a 32,5 % stake in Siveco for $ 12 million, which represents the biggest international investment up to date in Romanian software industry.
During the first semester of 2005, several spectacular operations occurred to Romanian software companies. Takeover of Forte Company by Siemens Business Services, Oracle bought ProfitLogic, Radix has been swallowed by Ness technologies, Axway, a French company, bought Crinsoft, and Global Finance fund massively invested in TotalSoft.
On communication part, was also publicized the takeover of the internet provider Astral by the American company UPC, the deal is estimated to around € 400 million.
October 2003 : IBM opens a Linux competence center in Romania. Within the Bucharest polytechnics University, this center involved over $ 1.5 million investment, and display up to date software and hardware. Its goal is to encourage and accelerate Linux diffusion in academic, economic and administrative field in the whole country.
August 2003 : XVth International Computing Olympics in the USA, with contestants of 71 countries. The Romanian team became 2 gold and 2 silver medals. Romanian ranked first in the world, being even with South Korea and USA.
June 2003 : Microsoft buys the Romanian specialist of Antivirus software, Gecad Software (famous for RAV product). Once again the proof of Romanian engineers in IT security filed... security which can also be an Eastern Europe specialty !
Brief sectoral history :
Romania IT sector is already over 50 years old. In 1957, Romania was the first Eastern Country to create a first generation computer. (CIFA in 1957, MECIP in 1961, DACICC in 1962.)
In the 70s, with import of western technologies (CII - France ; Friden - Netherlands ; Ampex - Memorex - Control data ; USA ) was built a powerful IT sector. Its research unities, production, service and calculation centers amounted per total to over 40 000 people. During this period, computers Made in Romania were exported to Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, China, Middle East, etc...
Nonetheless, modern technologies from the 70s became obsolete in the 80s because of extremely strict import restriction policy... before this sector was reborn after 1990.
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Sector