Yeah, I am not sure that one can argue that the eventual demise of Bell Labs was caused by the divestiture except, perhaps, in that AT&T would have remained a s

Yeah, I am not sure that one can argue that the eventual demise of Bell Labs was caused by the divestiture except, perhaps, in that AT&T would have remained a stronger company longer had it not happened. It seems more likely that they were simply the victim of the relentless focus on short term ROI that has characterized big business for the last decade(s). I'm not even sure you can blame that on the company, considering that it's the shareholders who fundamentally encourage that behavior.