Update: Well, folks, it looks like we jumped the gun on this one. Samsung does indeed have an office on the Champs Elysées; however, it will be for investment, and is not active just yet. As for the R&D side, while we had been hearing that it was a Go, Samsung has informed us to the contrary, saying that the government has not been involved in any way with setting up an R&D office. I’ve left the original article intact below.
Samsung will have a brand new 15 person R&D office in Paris starting this fall, Rude Baguette has learned. Head up by Luc Julia, the team will largely work on Samsung’s SAMI project, which Julia spoke about at the Connected Conference last month. The office will be located at 117 avenue des Champs-Elysées – they will be sharing a building with IDInvest.
The new office was made possible by the Paris Region, who apparently rolled out the red carpet in order to make the office possible. This includes subsidized (perhaps even 100% free initially) rent, help with employment contracts and getting foreign employees set up with lodging & education needs for children.
The Paris R&D office by a major player is nothing new. Google has been hiring more & more developers in Paris after they opened their Rue de Londres office in 2012, while Priceminister parent-company Rakuten announced a new Paris R&D office just this year. Salesforce currently has a sales office in Paris, with some potential R&D/innovation going on as well.
While I’ve never seen it, I’ve heard Apple’s Paris office is quite disappointing – you’re better off pretending that their Louvre Carrousel retail store is their office, as it’s bigger, has more employees, and is more involved in the Paris ecosystem.
Growing companies like Box are also located by the Champs Elysées, along with Facebook & Twitter just north of the iconic Paris district.