I heard one Bell Labs scientist observe that labs like that pay for themselves many times over if someone only rarely invents something great, like the transistor.
It seems to me that if one were desperately looking for an objective measurement of what the lab was currently accomplishing, it would involve looking at the quality and retention of its hires. It sounds like they dropped the ball.
They were told the reason was that Bell Labs is moving to a start up model (whatever that is) and that means closing some sites other than NJ. Then the head of Bell Labs was fired along with the CEO of Nokia.
Basically Alcatel-Lucent was broke and was bought out by Nokia with Microsoft money. Nokia is now also broke and they're pawning the good silver.
It seems to me that if one were desperately looking for an objective measurement of what the lab was currently accomplishing, it would involve looking at the quality and retention of its hires. It sounds like they dropped the ball.