CICA in Sophia : the newcomers

Since the beginning of the year, seven high tech companies have set up in the International Center for Advanced Communication. From Tality to Cross System, a flash over the newcomers.

Some changes at the CICA, the company incubator of the Council of the Department in Sophia Antipolis. Since the beginning of the year, seven new company setting ups have been recorded. The newcomers will be introduced on Thursday April 5th, 9.00 am, to all the 50 companies hosted in the International Center for Advanced Communication. Here is the new wave of the CICA, the temple of new information and communication technologies.- Tality-Cadence Design: this Cadence's subsidiary set up at the CICA mid-february 2001. Cadence-Design System, already present in Sophia Antipolis (around forty people) is a company which provides developments tools for automated mapping for chip conception. /www.tality.com">Tality(ex-Electronic Design Services) was one of its divisions which has been subsidised. It is composed of 1.100 people all over the world with a European part headed by the Business Development unit of Livingstone, in Great-Britain near Edinburgh. The concept of Tality, the world number one in design services, is an application of an outsourcing model, already very used in the production, to the design. The agency in Sophia headed by Laurent Nicq (the former person in charge of Clip Technology) depends on Livingstone. It is integrated to the Tality's Datacom and Telecom group and offers design services for chips, cards and complete systems for the telecom industry in particular. The two year term objective in Sophia is to open a real design center which could gather about one hundred people.- Advanced manufacturing Institute (A.M.I.): this is an audit and engineering consulting company. They organize seminars for industrialists in a very targeted industry with customers such as SIAP, ABP, Ericsson.Staff : 4 to 5 people.-Cross Systems: with Cross Systems, arrived in January 2001, there's now in the research park a multi-channel Internet specialist (mobile telephones, personal assistants, Internet terminals, video game consoles, TV, cable and satellite). Founded in 1986, the company is composed of 480 people. It is as well set up in Paris, Lyon, Geneva, London, Annecy, Lausanne and Grenoble.The group is developing over four occupations : architecture of information technologies with Cross Technologies; global communication focused on the Web and new medias with Cross Agency; formation with Cross Institute; content creation with Cross interactive content. In Sophia Antipolis, the new agency is composed of ten people with an objective of 20 by the end of the year and of 60 by the end of 2002.-Widcomm: a new protagonist in Sophia in the 'Blue Tooth' technology industry. Widcomm has created a protocol which makes that technology work and which allows the company to make all the instruments equipped with chips communicate each others. And it is wireless protocol. The company has been created in San Diego, USA, in 1998. it is now composed of 160 people. Sophia (4 people) will allow the company to develop its European pole.-Mfuture labs: behind this name, the greman car manufacturer, Volkswagen. The car giant has opened in February a research lab for mobiles and embarked information technologies. Four or five people work there for the moment.-Kahn & Associés: the famous Parisian law firm of Daniel P. Kahn specialized in the high tech industry (60 people, 40 of whom are lawyers) has opened an agency late year 2000. At the beginning they have delayed because of setting up formalities but since February it is working great with Fabrice Perbost.-Fondation Cegetel: we should talk about a come back rather than an arrival. The Fondation Cegetel, whose person in charge is Antoine Perry, was born in the CICA two years ago and had had to move because of a lack of space. In a way the company comes back where it started.