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Adobe to invest $50 million to expand Indian technology centre

Adobe Systems Inc, which is betting big on Internet publishing software tools and electronic books, said on Tuesday it would likely spend $50 million in the expansion of its Indian technology centre.

"When you look at the talent, we would probably invest $50 million over the next five years," Bruce Chizen, the California-based company's president, told a news conference.

To start with, Adobe plans to invest $10 million in a new facility at Noida.

The development centre has 90 engineers and the figure is expected double in the coming year, Adobe said in a statement.

After the first phase of its expansion, expected to be completed in June, 2002, the centre could take more than 300 engineers and the number could go up by a further 500 in the second phase later, company officials said.

"Just about any product we produce today" had a contribution from Adobe's three-year-old Indian research and development centre, its largest outside the United States, Chizen said.

Adobe launched on Tuesday what it called the world's first collaborative, interactive electronic book, which would be authored and distributed free over the Internet.

The book, a novel called The Motive will start with the free download (at www.themotive.net) of its first chapter by Indian movie actress and writer Tara Deshpande.

The second, fourth and sixth chapters of the political and crime thriller will be written by contributors who can win prizes.

The writer will choose the winners and take the novel forward by writing the third, fifth and the concluding seventh chapter.

The book is the brainchild of Indian Internet bookstore, Firstandsecond.com. Adobe has provided the publishing technology.

Chizen said his company could announce at any time its latest software products that would enable the reading of e-books and their secure distribution over the Internet.

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