Bellcore Sale

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

As we continue to erode our research base....


  
  
  This was just posted on the AP newswire:
  
  
  End of an Era: Bells Set to Sell Research Facility
  
  By JEANNINE AVERSA
  Associated Press Writer
  
      WASHINGTON (AP) - In a sign of their differing goals, the
  nation's seven regional Bell companies are planning to sell their
  long-coveted Bellcore research facility.
      A vote to sell the Livingston, N.J.-based consortium, Bell
  Communications Research Co., is expected within days, a Bell
  company executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
  Thursday.
      ``The regional Bell companies' rapid divergence of their
  business directions causes significant diversity in the nature of
  the services they require,'' according to a Bellcore document
  discussing the sale. ``Not all want or need the same degree and
  type of common services. Consequently, common ownership of a
  research and engineering facility tends to increasingly restrict
  each owner, and Bellcore as well,'' said the document, which was
  obtained by The Associated Press.
      Bell company executives discussed the sale in a conference call
  Wednesday night, but didn't reach a final decision, officials of
  the Bell companies said.
      One of the executives confirmed that Bellcore would be sold and
  that the key question was how the sale would be accomplished.
      When Bellcore was created after AT&T's breakup in 1984, the Bell
  companies had common goals and virtually identical operations.
      But their businesses' prospects and the telecommunications
  industry are both vastly different today.
      As they fight to get into the long-distance and cable television
  businesses, the Baby Bells face a future where they will be
  competing against each other for the first time.
      The Bell companies have been considering selling the facility,
  which employs 6,400 people and has a budget of roughly $1.02
  billion, since last fall.
      Options for selling the facility include selling stock to the
  public or institutional investors or selling to a group of
  companies, the officials said.
      The nation's largest consortium provider of communications
  software, services and research, Bellcore had a major role in the
  development of key communications technologies. They include ISDN,
  which permits voice, video and data to be carried simultaneously,
  sophisticated transmission equipment called SONET and switching
  equipment known as ATM.
      Bellcore holds 520 U.S. patents and 150 international ones.
      By being severed from its current owners, Bellcore would be
  freed from some legal restrictions.
      This freedom would permit Bellcore to provide broader, more
  tailored and timely support to customers, which currently include
  AT&T, Bell Canada and GTE, the officials said.
      Bellcore is currently barred from providing long-distance
  telecommunications services and from manufacturing
  telecommunications equipment.