Whatever the cause, it is now clear that the company got into trouble by promising too much to Wall Street, while being too slow to force money-making results from its vast and vaunted Bell Laboratories research operation.
Mr. Jobs provided access to proprietary information about the development and operation of Apple's highly successful stores, and Disney executives visited Apple's research operation in Cupertino, Calif.
The government ordered the reorganization of the company in 1982, which required it to divest itself of 22 local telephone companies, while retaining its long-distance service; the Western Electric Company, its manufacturing arm; and Bell Laboratories, its research operation.
Meanwhile it is managed by another contractor Mr. Murtha helped create, Concurrent Technologies, a research operation that somehow was allowed to be set up as a tax-exempt charity, according to The Washington Post.
Those factors will be used to determine analysts' compensation, said Robert J. McCann, a senior vice president who runs Merrill's research operation.
Besides a foothold in the American market, Alcatel could gain access to Bell Labs, the research operation instrumental in creating technologies like the transistor and the laser.
Mr. Spitzer said he planned to schedule public testimony by Mr. Blodget, several other former analysts and Deepak Raj, an executive who helps oversee Merrill's research operation.
Now Rosetta may have to recast its ambitions slightly as it becomes part of Merck's $2 billion research operation.
IBM has a research operation, one of the world's best, with 2,800 scientists and a $5.6 billion annual budget.
That's a significant change in attitude, said Francis M. Kinniry, who runs the investment counseling and research operation at Vanguard.
MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL INC., Purchase, N.Y., the card company, bought the TowerGroup, Needham, Mass., a financial services research operation, from the Reuters Group, London, for an undisclosed sum to win clients for its MasterCard Advisers unit.
