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."

Comments

Re:Not hard at all

[wjr]

As long as they don't see a massive brain drain from the buyout, they should be doing fine. Despite what you say, there still exist companies like Microsoft and IBM who have enormous R&D departments and budgets. A buyout would be a shoe-in.

The brain drain is already under way - I know because I'm one of the drainees, having left PARC this past February to go to a startup. A number of other people left around the same time I did, and I've heard of a number more since then. Remember, PARC is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, meaning that you can't walk down the street without three companies trying to hire you - the sort of talent that PARC attracts is particularly in demand. The temptation to go to a hot company that is offering a high salary and large stock option package is quite high.

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.

Why PARC may be hard to sell

[lrund]

PARC has been, to a great extent, a "basic research" institution (that's what the "R" is for in its name, after all). They develop technology, not products. The task of turning technology into product has been the work of other groups.

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.

Re:What a shame

[_N0EL]

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.

Re:It had to happen sometime.

[jafac]

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.