Will the Avaya and Agere spinoffs affect Bell Labs?
To accomodate the research needs of Avaya and Agere, certain parts of Bell Labs have been spun out with these companies. A sizeable portion of the Physical Sciences Research Division (including the Silicon Manufacturing Research Center) moved out of Bell Labs to form the research arm of Agere. The Avaya spinoff took with it a very small number of Bell Labs researchers, but had a larger impact on development-oriented groups. Despite these changes, research at Bell Labs continues to be one of Lucent’s most important assets. As such, research continues to be fully funded at the corporate level. In terms of staff, Bell Labs is changing to provide the new Lucent with the research know-how and expertise that is required to bring innovations in all the areas of Lucent’s interest. Not surprisingly, Information Sciences Research (including Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics) keeps playing an ever expanding role both inside and outside Bell Labs and Lucent. This trend shows no sign of
