TECH ROUNDUP: Facebook (Almost) Becomes a Country, Microsoft Relocates, and VMware Posed to Be Largest Employer in Palo Alto

As Palo Alto is swimming in a virtual sea of technology companies, here's a look at how some made the news this week.

• With 600 million users, Facebook could be the world’s third largest country. Now, it’s acting like it and assembling a network of ambassadors from various countries around the world that will monitor local political landscapes in the local language. For the effort, Facebook is hiring policy directors in the Middle East, Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, Spain, and Central and Eastern Europe.

• Microsoft Corp. will soon relocate its Palo Alto and Mountain View offices to Moffett Towers, a 1.8 million-square-foot research and development campus in Sunnyvale. The company signed a long-term agreement to lease 237,000 square feet of office space.

• Cloud-computer pioneer VMware confirmed on Wednesday that it’s expanding to the rest of the Stanford Research Park, taking over an adjacent 1 million square feet of building space left vacant from pharmaceutical giant Roche. The new move brings 2,500 new jobs and could make VMware the largest employer in Palo Alto.

• Facebook is deeming New York-based Paul Ceglia’s lawsuit that he’s entitled to up to one half of the company, “a brazen and outrageous fraud.” Facebook questioned why Ceglia, who’s had previous run-ins with the law, waited seven years in to file the lawsuit.

• Bill.com will expand its offerings to the smartphone with “Bill.com Mobile,” allowing companies to track their finances sans an actual computer. The company is a leader for online bill payments and invoicing for small- to medium-sized businesses.

• Hewlett-Packard’s networking chief will bid farewell to the company on June 1. Marius Haas led the company through its 3Com acquisition and made it a broader competitor with Cisco, but is now moving on to investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.