Effective as early as October, Skype will be moving its San Jose and Brisbane offices to 3210 Porter Drive, located in the Stanford Research Park. This move, mirroring social network Facebook and Tesla Motors’ recent relocations, affirms the importance of the park to the Silicon Valley’s high-tech community.
Founded in 1951, the Stanford Research Park boasts acclaim as the world’s first technology-focused office park. The park is predominantly home to scientific, electronics and research-oriented companies, and is often credited with having a significant role in the creation and development of several Silicon Valley technology firms. Following Hewlett-Packard’s start in the park and subsequent success in the electronics industry, interest in Palo Alto and in the Stanford community has only heightened among advanced tech companies.
“We are thrilled that Skype decided to create an office here at the Stanford Research Park,” said Tiffany Griego, the associate director of Stanford Real Estate Operations. “[Skype] is a solid company with a lot of growth potential. This move will really create jobs — it’ll especially bring attention to the park.”
Skype, which enables its users to communicate through voice or face-to-face over the Internet, has enjoyed increasing popularity since its Luxembourg-based creation in 2003. In 2009, Skype was purchased from eBay by an investor group led by Silver Lake; this transaction has given the software company more room to expand, as Silver Lake has reached a settlement agreement with Skype’s sister company Joltid Ltd., founded by Skype creators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.
“Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology,” said eBay president and CEO John Donahoe in a Skype press release.
Skype’s decision to move away from San Jose, the location of eBay’s headquarters, to the Stanford Research Park, may benefit both the company and the University. The research park, a coveted location for high-tech industries, offers access to talent, resources, other advanced companies, University libraries and professors as advisors and counselors. The influx of social networking companies into the research park will expose these businesses to some of the brightest technical minds in the United States — and vice versa.
“Skype moving near Stanford should be a plus for campus job opportunities,” said Cyrus Navabi ‘11. “Having young companies like Facebook and Skype around is part of what makes Stanford such an innovative and exciting place.”
“We hope to attract some of the best and brightest talent in the Valley, especially engineers who are skilled at building ultra-scalable infrastructure,” said Skype CEO Josh Silverman in a press release.
Skype’s lease with the University entails a considerable 90,000 square feet of land set aside for regional marketing and business development. It will join locations in Estonia, Prague and Stockholm — offices dedicated to the constant maintenance and advancement of Skype software.
The move of an internationally popular company to Stanford’s backyard might also help those students seeking real-life application of their classroom studies.
“Skype’s products are really well-known and exciting,” said Chris Anderson ’11. “It’d be pretty cool to talk to your mom on a product you worked on.”