Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA, named for a tree called El Palo Alto. The city is located at the northern end of Silicon Valley, and is home to Stanford University (which is technically located in an adjacent area, Stanford, California), and several successful high-technology companies, such as Hewlett-Packard. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,598.

Economy

Palo Alto serves as a central economic focal point of the Silicon Valley, due in large part to the Stanford Research Park on Page Mill Road. The city?s economy generally follows the economic trends of the rest of the Silicon Valley.

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Several well known companies are headquartered in Palo Alto, including:

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• Agilent
• CNF Inc. (Fortune 500)
• Genencor
• Hewlett-Packard
• IDEO
• Space Systems/Loral
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (technology law firm)

Other notable corporate citizens:

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• Fry's Electronics
• NYSE
• PAIX
• Roche Bioscience
• The Wall Street Journal
• Xerox PARC
• Lockheed Martin

In addition, Palo Alto has a lively retail and restaurant trade, and the Stanford Shopping Center and downtown Palo Alto (centered around University Avenue) are popular destinations.

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See also: Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce list of Major Employers (archived)

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