> a desire to keep a bunch of smart people from going to any potential competitors...they just needed to keep them locked away from competitors Companies still

> a desire to keep a bunch of smart people from going to any potential competitors...they just needed to keep them locked away from competitors Companies still do this today, they just go about it differently. Google started Google X, Cisco has (had?) spin-ins, functionally everyone large enough has an unofficial rest and vest program. Like another commenter said, it just seems like the financial incentives don't lend themselves to formal research orgs anymore.