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Xerox Trying To Sell PARC
JavaTenor writes "Xerox, with their stock currently at a 10-year low, is apparently shopping the Palo Alto Research Center (commonly known as PARC) to Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Anyone who's studied the history of computing will know how great a contribution PARC has had to the advancement of technology, and especially to GUI development. This should be an interesting story to follow. See the New York Times writeup here."
The exodus was bad enough in the spring, when Xerox's fortunes weren't quite so bad. With the company continuing to fumble, I can only imagine the morale there now (this is sad - the people there are friends; I worked with them for years).
Personally, I don't put a lot of credit in this rumour; for one thing, I don't see a clear buyer. Maybe HP or IBM, but they've both already got large Bay Area research facilities. Remember - the inventions PARC creates belong to Xerox, not to PARC itself, so what can you sell? All the patents? Xerox is using a lot of them. The buildings? Xerox doesn't own those. The employees and ongoing projects? That's possible, I suppose... there are a bunch of really cool projects going on there (including ones I worked on), and a lot of really bright people still there. They're working as hard as they can to create Xerox's future, but that's always been a long-term thing, and the short-term needs may trump that.
If Xerox does end up selling PARC, I don't know what will come out the other side - but it won't be the PARC that I worked at.
Okay, you're a venture capitalist. PARC comes across your desk as being for sale. How is PARC going to turn a profit? They don't make anything. They learn things. And as admirable and necessary as that is, VCs have to be concerned about eventual profitability first and foremost. It's their job.
PARC could make money, by creating patentable (oooh, there's that word) technology then licensing it to other companies to develop into products. That's risky, though, since the patent process is slow and uncertain (it can take years and years between applying for and receiving a patent). Someone might simply steal your idea and productize it, and play the lawyer/stalling for time game that Certain Monopolistic Companies are so skilled at. Or, you could add a product development team to PARC, but that would dilute it into "just another tech company". You'd have a respected name, but that won't pay the rent.
It's a real shame that Xerox is considering selling PARC. Basic research is an endangered species, and in today's cutthroat corporate environment, shareholders won't tolerate money going into a black box with no clear returns (remember, the Board of Directors is elected by the shareholders, and they are bound to enact the will of their shareholders... we have met the enemy, and it is us. you DO have a 401K, right?). This leaves the government as the primary funder of basic research, and this is notoriously inefficient (when was the last time you heard of a government agency spending its money anywhere near as frugally as any corporation? Corps do have skills that the rest of us could stand to learn.)
Ah well. The end of an era. As I reach for the mouse to click "Submit", I think kindly on you, PARC.
Especially when you're working at "The Document Company"!
I remember giving a resume to some Xerox recruiter at a job fair in college (mostly because I thought PARC was interesting). A few weeks later I got a letter back from them confirming that they had received it...unfortunately, my name and address were mispelled in three or four different ways! It looked like they OCR'd it sloppily and never checked the output. Not very impressive for a company which claimed to be on the cutting edge of document processing.
Just list it on eBay!
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
On the flipside, it's not like Xerox has ever capitalized on having this asset. PARC claims invention of Ethernet, laser printer, first pc (the Altos), the mouse and GUI; they let these go and the benefits fell on such companies as 3Com, HP, IBM, and Apple. Hopefully this wonderful institution won't end up in the "trash," but in the hands of someone who understands PARC's visions.
"My mother works for Microsoft now. A whole other cult."
...these days, the land PARC's sitting on is worth more than the business unit. I wouldn't be surprised to see it sell to some company wanting office space in Palo Alto, or to a developer (the kind that builds buildings and sells/leases them) looking to tear down the old buildings, build a new office park, and rent it out.
Only half-kidding,
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
XRX management let PARCS's accomplishments wither on the vine. If Lucent was smart, and not currently busy with spin-offs and watching their stock dive, they would buy PARC and merge in into Bell Labs.
"Obtuse Anger is that which is greater than Right Anger" - Lewis Carroll
I heard from someone who works at Xerox that pretty much everyone in the company is looking for a new job, and has been for the past few months. This is just a rumor, of course, but I would be surprised if Xerox did NOT go Bankrupt. Someone said he helped his boss's boss print out a resume. I guess things don't bode very well for the company...
And remember, you heard it on Slashdot, so it must be true!
-Ted
anyone who thinks that kind of lightning will strike in a startup, the symbol of innovation in "this" era, misunderstands the nature of real innovation and basic research.
If they do get sucked up by a real company that needs them to produce products, it will be gone in 3 to 5 years.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Of course, now Microsoft will have to buy it so they can tell Apple to stuff it with their whining about who invented the GUI.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.