Note that I am specifically talking about research "that will never produce a dollar." That was the whole point of the article - stock holders shouldn't be subs

Note that I am specifically talking about research "that will never produce a dollar." That was the whole point of the article - stock holders shouldn't be subsidizing research that has a ~0% chance of benefiting the company; a lot of MSR is devoted to this type of research. Universities tend to do a very good job of regulating their numbers in a specific field, but the billions of dollars Microsoft throws at research is throwing that off balance. If a researcher can't find a University position, there are tons of other jobs he can find. Normally, it can be argued that anything a company does makes things more efficient in a capitalist system. In this case, a lot of shareholders (and I) and arguing that what Microsoft is doing isn't.