At the height of the internet bubble in 2000, when computer scientists were scarce in California’s Bay Area, Yahoo toyed with the idea of looking further afield for software engineers. The internet company set up a small office in Bangalore – in 2003 its office’s head count was fewer than 20 people. Today the Bangalore office has 1,000 computer scientists and engineers in what is Yahoo’s largest research and development centre outside its California headquarters.
“We wanted to see whether we could acquire talent to help us out,” says Venkat Panchapakesan, chief executive of Yahoo India research and development, who moved from Silicon Valley to India.
