More than 200 highly skilled jobs will be created in Dublin over the next five years by US internet marketing company Overture Services Inc.
The firm, which was formerly known as GoTo.com, yesterday confirmed the story carried in Saturday's Irish Times that it plans to expand its Irish operations to include a European search services centre.
The centre will be located at the East Point Business Park and will employ a multilingual workforce of 100 editors and customer service representatives by 2004.
It will serve Overture's customers based in Britain, France and Germany. The firm plans to expand its European operations into other states later this year.
The company, which has its headquarters in Pasadena, California, has developed a system that enables advertisers to get their brands listed and recognised on internet search engines.
Overture has created a network of more than 80,000 advertisers worldwide and plans to have revenues of $1 billion (€928 million) in 2003.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, welcomed the jobs announcement and said it was a boost to the Republic's strategy to become a leading player in the digital media industry. She said the Republic would remain competitive as long as it had a supply of individuals with the right skills and the necessary infrastructure.
IDA Ireland will support the project, even though it is located in Dublin rather than one of several regional locations identified as priorities for investment.
An IDA spokesman said the agency provided grants because what Overture does is an important emerging market sector for the agency. He said it was still not possible to attract internet firms such as Overture or Google to regional locations due to the cost of connectivity.
He said this would not change until the Government's broadband initiative was fully implemented and the cost of telecoms services was equalised between Dublin and the rest of the State.
Mr Nick Hynes, president and managing director for Overture Europe, said the Republic was an ideal location for its new centre due to the international nature of the employment market.
He said the consolidation of its European functions in Dublin would bring economies of scale, greater efficiency and a standardised service for its customers. The centre would play a key strategic role as Overture increases its sales significantly, he added.
Overture operates a "pay-for-performance" internet model that enables advertisers to bid for placement in its search results to generate leads for Web surfers.
The advertiser only pays Overture when a surfer clicks on its search engine.
