The proposed acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft will definitely have an impact on the jobs in Ireland if the merger goes ahead. By looking at the type of the jobs in Microsoft Ireland today, the majority of the jobs are in the European Operations Centre (EOC), where the Sales jobs and Customer Service jobs dominate. There are some Localisation jobs, and some software development jobs based in Ireland, that mostly relate to the Microsoft Live for the European markets.
Yahoo on the other had was always predominately a US market oriented company. Yahoo never really had much of an impact in Europe. Perhaps that is the opportunity that Microsoft wants to explore, in bringing the Yahoo services to the rest of the world, where Microsoft has a strong foothold? If they decide for such a move that would definitely mean a strong workforce presence of Yahoo in Europe.
The situation in the US is a bit different. What both Microsoft and Yahoo, and any other tech company has to recruit there is the techies who will make the products or the services. As in the
Cnet’s article: Another difficulty for a Microsoft-Yahoo marriage: Recruiting
The battle for tech supremacy, then, is largely a battle for talent. And so one crucial question about Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo is whether a combined company could more easily attract software engineers–an increasingly precious commodity. Both companies are already fighting the perception that their most innovative days are behind them.
Our situation in Ireland is quite different. Since the techies are a minority in the US based companies operations on Ireland. The Customer Support Jobs and Sales Jobs make a majority of an average Irish based subsidiary of the US corporation. So the Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo, if it goes ahead is bound to make a strong Yahoo presence in Ireland. The best bet is actually in South Dublin in the Sandyford Industrial Estate & Leopardstown Business Park where Microsoft is based as well.