Apple adds to Seattle office footprint with new space at Two Union Square

Posted:
in iCloud edited July 2015
Apple has signed a lease for the 44th and 45th floors of a Seattle office tower at Two Union Square, expanding its corporate footprint in a city largely dominated by companies like Amazon and Microsoft, a report said on Monday.




The combined space measures approximately 30,000 square feet, two sources indicated to Bloomberg. That could fit anywhere between 120 and 200 workers.

The purpose of the expansion is unknown, but Apple opened an engineering office in the city last November. At least some core staff are believed to have been absorbed through a takeover of cloud computing startup Union Bay Networks, and been put to work on Apple's own cloud services including iCloud and iTunes.

The new space could represent an intensification of that effort. Given the presence of Amazon and Microsoft, as well as satellite operations by Alibaba, Google, and Facebook, Apple could be looking to exploit Seattle's large reservoir of cloud-oriented talent.

Apple's reliance on cloud platforms is only expected to grow in the next year. On June 30 it launched Apple Music, and by the end of the year it could debut its long-rumored streaming TV service, featuring a "skinny" bundle of live TV channels.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    konqerrorkonqerror Posts: 685member
    Also two major wireless companies are there: T-Mobile's headquarters are in Bellevue, AT&T's wireless test center and some other operations are in Redmond (used to be the headquarters of the old AT&T Wireless).
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Nobody knows why Apple does most of the time, and there's usually a well hidden reason that won't become obvious for a year or more... meanwhile Apple is stretching out in front of some unsuspecting competitor....
  • Reply 3 of 7
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post



    Nobody knows why Apple does most of the time, and there's usually a well hidden reason that won't become obvious for a year or more... meanwhile Apple is stretching out in front of some unsuspecting competitor....



    Massive Microsoft phone layoffs. There are bound to be some quality employees who are now available without recruitment or bonuses. Apple just being thrifty as usual.

  • Reply 4 of 7
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member

    Seattle has a burgeoning biotech base. Research Kit?

  • Reply 5 of 7
    My town! Love to see Apple expand their presence here. Lots of untapped potential. T-Mobile in Bellevue plus a huge pool of Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile to pick from now that they've essentially bowed out of the smartphone market.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post



    Massive Microsoft phone layoffs. There are bound to be some quality employees who are now available without recruitment or bonuses. Apple just being thrifty as usual.


     

    You realize that most of the people Microsoft is laying off live in Finland, right? 

  • Reply 7 of 7
    I think the simplest answer (from the article above) is the most obvious.

    There are a ton of people here who are experts in cloud/server infrastructure from Amazon, Microsoft, Microsoft related vendors, Disney, ESPN, Centurylink Cloud, etc.

    The MS phone layoffs are almost entirely focused in Finland and even so, Apple centralizes their major projects like that in Cupertino.

    Small note: Most people don't know this, but Pixar has had a small office in Pioneer square for many years. My understanding is that they create technical software, possible parts of Renderman, but I'm not sure.


    Union Square is not a very exciting building or part of the city - but it is downtown-ish.
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