Microsoft Corp. is close to signing new leases for two offices in Playa Vista and Santa Monica, where it will open a production studio for teams working on its Xbox game system, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.
Unnamed sources told the Journal that Microsoft is moving into 520 Broadway in Santa Monica and 13031 Jefferson Blvd. in Playa Vista.
Update: Microsoft Confirms It Will Create Content in Silicon Beach [LBJ]
Together with its existing spaces, including a new retail store on Abbott Kinney in Venice and offices in Westwood and Santa Monica's Water Garden, the two new offices would "bring all of Microsoft's L.A. operations... into the Westside," the journal reported.
At the northern tip of what's known in Los Angeles as "Silicon Beach," Santa Monica already boasts an impressive roster of technology and Internet companies that include Yahoo!, Demand Media and AOL (Patch's parent company), and arguably lesser-known names such as Realtime and Digiboo . This list of entertainment companies with offices and headquarters here is equally formidable: MTV, Lionsgate and CBS Television Distribution, for example.
Venice has experienced similar growth in the past few years. Most notably was the opening of new offices for Google at the iconic Binoculars Building.
Mayor Wants to Lure Tech Start-ups to Expo Corridor
With big businesses and start-ups already rooted in Los Angeles' beach communities, Microsoft's growth into the Westside "comes as no surprise to those familiar with the L.A. tech scene," Arty Maharajh, vice president of research at Cassidy Turley Inc., told the Business Journal.
For the full story, click over to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
