Xerox To Sell AI Research Centre Europe To South Korea's NAVER

(RTTNews) - Xerox Corp. (XRX) announced Monday an agreement, under which South Korea-based internet company NAVER Corp. will acquire the Xerox Research Centre Europe in Grenoble, France.

The French Works Council's consultation on this project has now been completed and the agreement is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to fulfillment of certain customary conditions.

Once the sale becomes final, all 80 plus researchers and administrative staff are expected to become part of NAVER. Xerox will maintain ownership of intellectual property and arrange licensing agreements with NAVER.

Founded in 1993, the Xerox Research Centre Europe is located just outside Grenoble, often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe. The centre has focused its research in artificial intelligence or AI, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and ethnography.

NAVER operates South Korea's top search portal "NAVER," and other innovative services in the global market such as the mobile messenger LINE, video messenger SNOW and community app BAND.

Chang-hyeon Song, CTO of NAVER, and CEO of NAVER Labs, said, "The research expertise at the European centre is perfectly aligned with NAVER's. We expect immediate, powerful synergies."