Myhrvold Blasts IBM, AT&T For Falling Short On Research

Speaking at Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference on the campus of MIT in Cambridge, Mass., Myhrvold said IBM and AT&T Bell Labs are doing some good work, but they are "shadows of their former selves."

IBM views its mission as the "near-term health" of the company, which is a "disastrously stupid thing to do," said Myhrvold. With IBM collecting billions of dollars a year in patent and technology licensing, the "rational thing to do if you are running IBM," would be to "shut the rest of it down and do research," he said.

AT&T's Bell Labs is in an even more dire financial position, with most of the company losing money while long-term patents provide hundreds of millions of dollars, Myrhvold said.

Myrhvold, a 14-year Microsoft veteran who is now managing director of Intellectual Ventures, a private entrepreneurial firm based in Bellevue, Wash., said Silicon Valley has not created great research labs. He said Microsoft, which has more than 600 employees in Microsoft Research, is an exception. "If Oracle and Cisco and other companies created research labs of that size and that kind of focus, our whole industry would be better," he said.

"Research is the kind of thing where the tide lifts everybody's boat," he said. "Going from the unknown, uninvented and undiscovered to the answer is a huge value for everyone."

When confronted with the position that only monopolies can afford to do long-term research, Mhyrvold replied, "I repeat my theme. Where is Cisco? Where is Intel?" The question and response drew laughter and loud applause from the several-hundred attendees at the conference.

"The world is full of companies that have the ability to put hundreds of people to work [doing] research and development," Myrhvold said. "There isn't a really good excuse to be a long-term player in technology and not invest in research.

"If you want technology years from now, you can't expect people to give it to you on a silver platter," he said.

For solution providers, the key to helping spark innovation is putting the spotlight on problems plaguing the industry, Myrhvold said.