Bell Labs kills basic physics research facility

This article mad me sad.
Not a nice way to start a weekend.
Woe betide!!!
Hark back to the summer of 2002, when a first year engineering student, studying for his Engineering Mechanics exam sees an article in an electronics magazine about this Mecca of Innovation, this former Shangri-la of the Sciences...this likeness of the all powerful mythical heroes of yore that inspires awe and at the same time humbles you.
Wonder struck, this student thinks to himself, won't it be wonderful if we get to work here, to interact with the some of the best minds in science, both basic and applied (though he didn't know it wasn't true anymore, even then), be a part of a wonderful discovery that impacts the world significantly?
Some things are never meant to happen, or so fatalists would like to believe.
Alcatel-Lucent claim that they will be focussing instead on networking, communication and nanotechnology.
The last term has become such a cliche that I'm guessing few know what they're talking about when they use that term anymore. How is one going to do nanotechnology without focussing on basic semiconductor research, the backbone of the promised nano-revolution? Are these guys instead going to do soft matter research? But doesn't that still fall under basic Physics? Does that even make sense? Are they anything but stark raving mad? Am I anything but? Are short terms gains the only things that matter?
Damn.