Microsoft, Google Join Lab Project
Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are setting aside their bitter animosity to back a new Internet research laboratory aimed at helping entrepreneurs introduce more groundbreaking ideas to a larger audience.
Sun Microsystems Inc. also is joining the $7.5-million project at UC Berkeley. The Reliable Adaptive Distributed systems Laboratory, or RAD Lab, was scheduled to open today and will give out $1.5 million annually over five years, with each company contributing equally.
Six UC Berkeley faculty members and 10 computer science graduates staff the lab, which plans to develop free Web-based software services. The lab’s services could help launch another revolutionary company like EBay Inc. or even Google.
The lab already has created something highly unusual: a bond between Google and Microsoft. The two are fierce rivals in the online search market, and their behind-the-scenes rancor has been publicly aired in a Washington state court battle triggered by Google’s recent raids on Microsoft’s workforce.
Microsoft senior researcher James Larus said the collaboration on RAD should not be seen as a truce. A Google representative did not return calls seeking comment.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems also has had a prickly relationship with Microsoft, although their relationship has improved since Microsoft paid Sun $1.6 billion last year to settle antitrust and patent infringement lawsuits.
Sun and Google are highly collegial. In October, they formed a partnership to develop more software tools that might threaten the dominance of Microsoft Office.
