Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates recently said that, while his company naturally has concerns about the safety of employees of Microsoft Israel, the company will not be deterred ?from deepening our activities in Israel.? Israel Line reported that Gates intends to expand Microsoft?s investment in Israel in the future. ?We are investing and continue to invest in our research and development in Israel. Our team in Israel has recently been handed with some challenging and ambitious tasks. They are working with new developments, particularly in the field of digital security. In this area Israel has an impressive record of accomplishment," Gates was quoted as saying in the Foreign Ministry publication. Israel continues to represent the cutting edge of innovation, the Microsoft chairman said, and his company will continue to be a part of it. "There is no connection between the war that Israel is fighting and the future of the technology that is being created there," he said.



In April, Microsoft sponsored a billboard campaign on the Ayalon highway in support of the IDF?s counter-terrorism efforts. The signs read, ?To the security forces and emergency services, the heart thanks you. - Microsoft Israel?



Microsoft Israel, founded in 1989, is one of the few Microsoft outposts abroad fully owned and operated by the U.S. parent company. The Microsoft research and development center in Haifa is one of a small group of overseas centers involved in developing new products for the parent company in the United States.