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This deal was a bit more complex than that. We worked for the Oil Division's Image Processing Lab. The Minerals Division contracted us to do the project--same company, different profit center.

During the course of the research, the company got into desperate trouble with a really stupid stock deal, and had to go deliberately into debt (it was called the "poison pill defense" back then, a boardroom maneuver to discourage corporate stock raiders like T. Boone Pickens). It protected management at the expense of the stockholders.

The company started divesting itself of divisions, and for a while it was touch and go whether Oil or Minerals would be sacrificed. We had never found oil with remote sensing, but we had just made a major gold strike, so our management forbid us from revealing to anyone (especially Minerals) the results of our research. We were ordered to bury the report in order to protect Oil management from the wrath of the Board.

This find would have made the careers of the scientists I supported, but they were contractually forced to put a sock in it. So they quit immediately. I only regret I didn't have the cojones to follow them out the door the same day. But a few months later, after I had scored another job, I did just that.

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