Microsoft Corp. plans to spend about $1 billion over the next three years on an expansion that will add enough offices at its headquarters to house about 12,000 workers.

The plan, which calls for increasing Microsofts sprawling suburban campus by about one-third, will accommodate both new and existing workers.

The Redmond-based software behemoth plans to add another 4,000 to 5,000 workers worldwide, most of them in the Seattle area, during the current fiscal year ending in June.

The company employed about 30,000 workers in the Puget Sound region out of more than 63,000 globally when it released its latest employment figures Sept. 30.

Microsoft, which also is expanding overseas, said its plans call for bulking up its hometown campus more rapidly than previously anticipated.

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