"HP Drops 4 Research Groups in Downsizing"

from San Francisco Chronicle (07/22/05) P. C1; Pimentel, Benjamin

Four research groups at HP Labs will be dropped as part of Hewlett-Packard's latest downsizing effort, one of which was headed by renowned computing pioneer Alan Kay. Kay won the ACM's A.M. Turing Award and the National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize, and was a co-designer of ARPAnet, the Internet's predecessor. HP Labs' Dave Berman says Kay's group dealt with advanced software research, but insists that HP's research agenda will remain "rich and varied" despite the loss. The other groups eliminated by the downsizing include a pair of Palo Alto labs focusing on consumer applications and emerging technologies, and a Cambridge, Mass., group whose work covered health care and medical issues. Berman cites HP Labs' continuing quantum computing and nanotechnology research as evidence of the company's dedication to R&D-supported innovation. "We are trying to refocus our research into the areas of greatest promise and our core strength and those areas which are most important to HP in the medium and long term," Berman says. Analyst Michael Dortch warns that HP could put itself at a disadvantage if it no longer has access to talent of Kay's caliber. He says, "How many times in a lifetime does a company like HP get access to a mind like Alan Kay's?"

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