Allen shuts down research firm

Not everything Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen touches is turning into gold.

This week, Allen closed the doors of one of his ventures, Interval Research, a

computer and cable-television technology research firm located in Palo Alto.

Ninety of the company’s 120 employees were fired. The other 30 were

absorbed into a new company that will develop cable TV and Internet devices. The

new firm will be part of Allen’s Vulcan Ventures investment group that has

been building one of the largest cable TV networks in America. Allen said he

decided to closed Interval after it spent nearly $100 million researching

advanced new technologies for running computers, the Internet and phone and

cable networks. "We came to the conclusion that it didn't make sense to

continue to fund research with a long lead time. People do research every day on

the Internet," said Vulcan Ventures Chief Executive William Savoy.