Facebook intends on expanding operations at the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park to two adjacent parcels of land and also hiring 9.400 more workers by 2017.
"We're just preparing for the future," Larry Yu, Facebook's director of corporate communications, told the San Jose Mercury News. The social network now employs about 1,400 people in Palo Alto but expects to reach full capacity at the Sun campus and nearby building on Constitution Drive in six years.
Facebook announced plans to move to Menlo Park in February, saying it outgrew its present digs. The campus and adjacent lots are divided into "East Campus" and "West Campus." Previously, Sun Microsystems was prohibited from more than 3,600 employees because of traffic concerns, but Facebook said it will incorporate a strict commuting policy and add buses to accommodate the city.
The Atlantic did a little math and concluded that's a 670 percent increase in Facebook's workforce. If those kind of numbers keep up, Facebook could face another move to a bigger campus. While 11,000 employees is less than half of Google's bulk, it shows that Facebook is becoming much more of a vital part of the Silicon Valley economy.
