roundtable: Re: What price for Bellcore or how do you value basic RandD

roundtable: Re: What price for Bellcore or how do you value basic R&D

Re: What price for Bellcore or how do you value basic R&D

Jeff Richards/ALLIANCE (richards@bell.com)
Thu, 25 May 1995 15:56:40 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 15:56:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jeff Richards/ALLIANCE <richards@bell.com>
Subject: Re: What price for Bellcore or how do you value basic R&D
To: roundtable@cni.org
In-Reply-To: <9505241814.AA26174@a.cni.org>
Message-Id: <Pine.3.85.9505251539.K7045-0100000@bell.com>


Speaking only for myself and not Bellcore or any Bell company, I think
that the telling phrase from the Journal was ..."many Bellcore employees
are looking forward to release from their antitrust decree-bondage"... 

Most folks are not aware or interested in the fact that the manufacturing
ban is still in place uniquely on the regional Bell companies, as well as
the well-known long distance ban from the moment of the AT&T Bell System
divestiture on 1.1.84.

The District Court defines manufacturing in several ways that many here
would find suprising, including rulings that have prohibited "firmware"
and other activities that I personally consider basic to bringing research
to fruition in real applications.

But my opinion is only one of many... there's a small but amazing body of
legal writing on the manufacturing ban since it is so unique in the world. 
Funny how these "little esoteric issues" can have a non-theoretical impact 
on a nation's R&D resources...

So, IS the question one of setting a price and "selling an R&D company" --
or is it the one posed by "many Bellcore employees?"

Seems to me that the human knowledge of Bellcore is indeed uncommonly hard
to value (or price) when it has been fundamentally constrained for 11
years -- since birth.


Jeff Richards................................................
The Alliance for Competitive Communications &
Pacific Telesis Group             Internet: richards@bell.com
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On Wed, 24 May 1995, W. Curtiss Priest wrote:
> 
> When AT&T was a monopoly Bellcore (then Bell Labs) was the crown of
> the nation.  Scientists invented everything there from the transistor
> to new metals for springs.
> 
> It is a classic problem to value basic science.  That's why, even 
> Republicans back funding Science!
> 
> But now we have the bizarre situation of trying to sell a "company" 
> that does science and basic R&D!
> 
> Read on ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> WHAT PRICE BELLCORE?
> Bellcore's on the block, but the Baby Bells are having a hard time 
> deciding what to charge.  "It isn't commercially oriented, and it's 
> been operated as a nonprofit that hasn't been accountable to anyone in 
> particular.  It's a seven-headed monster right now," says one Wall 
> Street analyst.  Nevertheless, many Bellcore employees are looking 
> forward to release from their antitrust decree-bondage: "It's about 
> time we were able to start cashing in on what we know and what we have," 
> says one Bellcore engineer.  The process of selling the research 
> organization promises to be especially dicey, as the Baby Bells have 
> no intention of undermining their own positions by selling to a direct 
> competitor, such as AT&T.  (Wall Street Journal 5/22/95 B1)
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________________
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