Googleplex - 1950

The Palo Alto Research Center works with varied enterprises, government entities and new ventures to discover breakthrough business and technology concepts that solve needs and transform how enterprises deliver value to customers. The center combines physical, computer, biological and social scientists who aim to convert advanced scientific findings into industrial-strength prototypes. Incorporated in 2002, it is an independent research business that has contributed to such innovations as laser printing, distributed and ubiquitous computing, graphical user interface and object-oriented programming. PARC employs nearly 170 researchers from approximately 50 different countries. The agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox Corporation. It maintains a location in Palo Alto, Calif.

Founded in 1982, Adobe Systems develops and markets a full line of desktop publishing software. The company s flagship product is Adobe Acrobat Reader, a tool that displays portable document format files on the Internet and is distributed free of charge. The company s digital imagining, Web publishing and print publishing software includes Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, Elements and Album. Adobe's offerings also include GoLive Web design and electronic book publishing software, as well as the Adobe InDesign, InCopy and Type Library publishing package that provides professional layout and design applications. The company s professional services group offers implementation, training and support for all Adobe products. Shantanu Narayen is president and chief operating officer of Adobe, one of the world's largest and fastest growing software companies. Narayen leads the company's day-to-day global operations; sets Adobe's long-term market strategies; and oversees all product research and development, corporate strategy and investments, and corporate and product marketing. Adobe Systems is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices throughout North America, South America, Mexico, Asia, Australia and Europe.