[ASIA] U.S.-based Netscape Communications, best known for its Netscape Navigator
Web browser, announced the launch of its India operations with an initial investment of $10
million.
Netscape Communications India Private Limited (Netscape India) would utilize Indian software
development talent and employ over 100 senior engineers to develop next-generation software
products for Netscape and America Online (AOL).
“India is a key development center for the company and the first projects in India would include
software development for iPlanet e-commerce solutions,” said Maneesh Dhir, managing director,
Netscape India.
iPlanet is a global strategic alliance of Sun Microsystems, Netscape and AOL, focused on
developing e-commerce applications and services. The development team would then be scaled
up to work on projects for Netscape and AOL project teams, Dhir said.
iPlanet had established an India development center in February this year with an investment of $8
million to $10 million. It recently announced the launch of iPlanet Application Server 6.0 (iAS
6.0), a high performance, scalable and reliable Java 2 (J2EE) platform for deploying e-commerce
applications and services.
“Indian software talent is quite sophisticated in emerging technologies and will bring us critical
strength,” Dhir said.
“Engineers who join us at Netscape India will have an opportunity to work on leading-edge
Internet software technology with some of the world’s best talent,” he added.
He declined to give details of the investment in Netscape but said the local unit was a 100 percent
owned indirect subsidiary of AOL. Dhir indicated that investment was comparable to that of $10
million when they started iPlanet.
