Open Text doubling the size of its Waterloo headquarters
WATERLOO — Open Text Corp. will double the size of its Waterloo headquarters with the construction of a second building in the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park and add as many 800 more people to its workforce here.
The company already employs about 1,000 people in Waterloo, between the building that is currently on Frank Tompa Drive and rented space elsewhere, said Tom Jenkins, Open Text executive chair and chief strategy officer.
The new building, expected to be complete in 2011, will give the company the capacity to have a total of 1,500 to 2,000 people on its campus in Waterloo, he added.
Construction of the new 120,000-square-foot, five-storey building will start in July and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2011. It will be joined to Open Text`s existing 113,000-square-foot, three-storey office by an elevated enclosed sky bridge.
Open Text creates the software that organizes and allows the sharing of digital text, video and audio content generated within corporations, media companies and government organizations all over the world.
Jenkins describes it as being akin to a Facebook or YouTube behind the protected computer firewalls of large organizations, allowing people in the organization to collaborate on work, and also manage websites that share digital media content with the outside world.
"People have not stopped using the internet during the recession, so we have had continued growth all the way through it," Jenkins said. We have had quite a lot of customer demand because what we do is the internet," he added.
The amount of content on the internet is rising exponentially, Jenkins said. "So what this represents is not just a belief in Ontario and Waterloo, but it is a big bet on the internet," he added.
Although he couldn`t be at the announcement, Open Text`s president and chief executive officer John Shackleton said in a statement that "it`s an exciting day for the Waterloo tech region and particularly for Open Text, our employees, customers and partners."
Shackleton said that despite the challenging economy, the company`s customers continue to view its enterprise content management software as critical to their operations.
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