GO WEST, YOUNG FRENCHMAN (int'l edition)
businessweek.com
From Paris to Aix-en-Provence, the secret is out: Silicon Valley holds all the promise that the French economy lacks. And what began as a trickle of entrepreneurs and high-tech talent is turning into a torrent. For the new expatriates, the trip westward brings not only well-paid jobs but the chance to ride a high-tech revolution into the next century. For France, however, the trend is ominous. ''The whole environment in France is tragic,'' says Alex Balkanski, a French transplant whose C-Cube Microsystems Inc., founded in Silicon Valley a decade ago, is now a $340 million company with 800 employees. The technological gap between the U.S. and France, he says, ''is not closing, it's getting wider.'' |
