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An
agreement to that effect would run for "significantly longer"
then the three to five years that are common in Germany, the
person said.
Midea earlier on Thursday formally launched a 4.5 billion euro
($5 billion) offer for Kuka and committed to preserve Kuka's
sites, employment levels, brands and intellectual property.
Around 4,500 of Kuka's employees are based in Germany. Some
3,500 of them work are at its headquarters in the southern
German city of Augsburg.
The source also said that Kuka aims to sign an agreement with
Midea that would keep most of the German company's research and
development at its headquarters.
"It is important that core activities remain in Augsburg," the
person said.
Kuka currently employs more than 500 developers at its
headquarters. Around 50 research engineers work for Kuka in
China, but they work mainly on customer-specific applications.
The group also has some development activities in the United
States and Hungary.
The source said Kuka wanted binding agreements on strategy and
data protection.
($1 = 0.8941 euros)
(Reporting by Irene Preisinger; Writing by Maria Sheahan;
Editing by Sabine Wollrab and Harro ten Wolde)
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