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From: wjh@wayback.UUCP
Newsgroups: rec.video,rec.audio,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: 60 min. of digital video on a CD (really GE and Sarnoff)
Message-ID: <1123@wayback.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 18:46:34 EST
Article-I.D.: wayback.1123
Posted: Thu Mar 26 18:46:34 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Mar-87 05:54:38 EST
References: <4286@videovax.Tek.COM> <760@eneevax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany, NJ
Lines: 22
Keywords: digital, video, CD
Xref: utgpu rec.video:750 rec.audio:1020 sci.electronics:422
Summary: GE wasn't being so generous

> 
> The other big company in question is GE which recently "merged with"
> (read: bought) RCA, and the "third company" probably refers to the Sarnoff
> labs, formerly RCA's and the birthplace of color TV, laserdiscs, and God
> knows what else, which GE donated to SRI.
> 

Don't make GE look so generous.  When they bought RCA, they got Sarnoff
Labs, seemingly a very valuable research facility.  GE already had their own
labs and thought Sarnoff was redundant, so they tried to sell the labs.
Turns out that anyone with enough money to buy the labs already had their
own labs and wasn't interested.  So GE donated the labs to non profit
Stanford Research Institute (private, not part of Stanford University).  The
tax write off will be worth on the order of 100 million dollars;  SRI is
immediately cutting staff 25%;  SRI has a 200 or so million dollar contract
to finish up research in progress at the labs in support of the RCA lines of
business.  The donation did NOT include the land, a very valuable piece of
land just outside Princeton; SRI is leasing the land back. (One rumor befor
the donation was that GE was considering shutting down the labs and selling
the land to developers for really big dollars.)

Bill Hery