France Telecom Shutting Down R&D Lab in Cambridge

We were looking forward to exploring ways to make cellphone-based technology workable for third-world users, including some who are illiterate. Voice-based microblogging is one example. Orange and France Telecom have a presence in many of these countries with tremendous growth potential if the technology meets people where they are. Too bad France Telecom didn't see our value as a long-term investment.
-Paul Sawyer
Voice UI interaction designer

I am sad, but not surprised to see it go. It's bad news for the people involved and the NE technology scene - but then again, a telco running R&D these days is almost guaranteed to fail, isn't it? Industry structure and innovation landscape has changed so much over the last couple of years that service providers are finding it tough even to stay on top of their core business - providing a solid service experience.

must be the business friendly welcome mat, this state lays out....tax ,tax and more taxes.....

This is a superb piece of reporting. Concise and lays out what's at stake in a clear compelling way. I'd like to see Kirsner do more investigative reporting - less VC-massaging.

Thanks for the feedback, Jen. VC massaging is physically exhausting work, but the tips aren't bad.

Interesting story.

I suspect that cost-cutting and restructuring could be just a ruse. FT stock seems to be doing pretty well, it is paying dividends at around 8% with good cash flow, and margins in the telco space are still pretty high. France Telecom still operates a large network of international labs. Was this the only lab cut? I don't know. Were any labs inside France itself affected? Somehow I doubt this. Look at how France Telecom treated its Orange acquisition in the UK.

Two labs in the US for a French company does seem a bit excessive, especially when you have the entire working population of France itching for retribution at Anglo-American economic excess. And let's be honest, SF would make a nice place to wine & dine visitors. Boston seems a little too staid in comparison, for your average French executive probably a little too much like those little depressing low-budget British provincial cities which is best just avoided.

Was it ineptitude? From comments in a Linked-In discussion group, I understand that the Boston Lab had recently cut sponsorships of local universities like the MIT Media Lab, which seems in retrospect a particularly bone-headed thing to do if the purpose of putting the lab in Boston in the first place was to interact closely with local academic institutions. Without taking advantage of the Boston academia, it loses a lot of distinctive advantage, and would make it much harder to defend from cutbacks.

Was it internal politics? I also see the CEO and Chairman of France Telecom wrote a book called "The Second Life of Networks", co-written by one Georges Nahon and Gabriel Sidhom, both of whom are both at the San Francisco Lab. Connected much?

So reading this and the comments on Linked In, my suspicion is that the backstory is more complex. Economic conditions like these are often just a convenient opportunity for power plays within this kind of massive organization. Cost-cutting sounds like only a proximate cause.

Best office space in Cambridge! Spent some time there and was always impressed with the layout, design and "zen" of it all....