THE Dublin based software company CBT is set to approximately double its 160 strong workforce in a major expansion, industry sources said last night. And other jobs announcements in the pipeline over the coming weeks in the electronics and telemarketing sector across the Republic are expected to involve a further 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs, on top of the 1,200 announced this week.
On Thursday, 3Com Ireland said it was planning a massive extension of its Blanchardstown site which would require a further 775 jobs over five years. The company makes adaptors, hubs and ISDN routers.
The CBT development, which will be revealed on Monday by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, and the company's chairman and chief executive, Mr Bill McCabe, comes on the heels of a major contract won by CBT to supply training software to US computer giant Compaq.
The firm already has alliances with Microsoft, Oracle, Netscape and Cisco. In August, the firm appointed Mr Jim Buckley, formerly a senior vice president of Apple Computers, as its president and chief operating officer.
Last year, the company floated its shares; their value has since climbed fivefold. It now has a market value of close to $1 billion (£622 million).
In July, CBT reported that its pre tax profits had doubled for the second quarter to $2.4 million. The Clonskeagh based firm said that sales in the three months to June of this year rose from $8.8 million to $14.6 million, and that first half pre tax profits had almost touched $5 million.
CBT was founded in 1983 and opened a base near San Francisco 10 years later. Fortune magazine said recently it expected the company to grow at a rate of 31 per cent a year until the end of the decade.
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