DUBLIN – Google, the leading Internet search company, said Wednesday that it would hire 500 more employees in Dublin as it makes its Irish facility the largest outside the United States.
The central Dublin offices, which first opened with five employees in 2003, could have more than 1,400 people by the end of next year if Google can attract technical personnel and graduates in language studies from around the world, said John Herlihy, director of online sales and operations in Europe.
Google has 10,000 employees worldwide, including 3,000 at its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Herlihy said that Ireland’s low 12.5 percent corporate tax rate had helped Google decide to base its European operations there. But he said that the company had also found that people with desirable language skills were willing to relocate to the Irish capital.
«Dublin has become a melting pot for young people where 160 languages are being spoken,» Herlihy said. «It is the Ellis Island of the 21st century.»
Online advertising is growing at a particularly fast rate, he added, and Ireland will support Google’s operations «between Dublin and the Urals and down to Cape Town.»
The company’s Irish operations, which cover Europe, Africa and the Middle East, accounted for a third of its $6.1 billion in global revenue in 2005, according to regulatory reports that Google recently filed in Ireland.
In U.S. financial reports, Google said it expected its tax rate to fall to 30 percent this year from 31.6 percent in 2005 «primarily because we expect that our Irish subsidiary will recognize proportionately more of our earnings in 2006.»
The Irish corporate tax rate is lower than what is levied in the United States.
Fuente: International Herlad Tribune
