Xerox shutting down it's flat panel research project, dpiX.
An interesting failed investment in technology. $50-$70 million
in combined grants from DARPA. Wowwwy.
Greg
Other members of the consortium are believed to be all customers of dpiX, which was
founded in 1996 as a PARC spin-off through Xerox's New Enterprises effort which
seeks to commercialize the research efforts at PARC.
Malcolm Thompson, dpiX's founding CEO and a former chief technology officer of
PARC, left dpiX late last month, becoming the president and chief executive of
Novalux, a San Mateo, Calif.-based start-up working on advanced photonics.
Thompson could not be reached for comment.
``We have just not been able to make it a successful enterprise,'' said Xerox's
Everhart. ``It was never profitable and its revenues were really not significant for the
size of Xerox.'' In 1998, dpiX's revenues were $11 million.
All told, Xerox is believed to have invested about $100 million in the venture, with an
additional $50 million to $70 million in combined grants from the Department of
Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The company, which handles its own manufacturing in Palo Alto, was very capital
intensive and Thompson told Reuters in an interview last year that he was talking to
some of dpiX's customers about further funding.