I would like to present my perspective on this situation because such changes may ultimately impact university research and its relationship to history. Industrial organizations always demand strong linkage between their internal research and end products and processes. It follows that companies do research in certain technical areas but not in others. Under these circumstances, internal research has to change in order to maintain strong linkages to the business. Something similar applies here.
Structural changes come in three different forms.
First, some organizations reoriented their central business. It needed in-house materials research on semiconductors, dielectric coatings for wires, and connector corrosion. The new Monsanto will have greater need for biotechnologists and reduced need for chemists. Second, technical innovations shift organizational needs. In particular, a historic change has occurred due to the persistent doubling of integrated circuit complexity about every eighteen months since 1970.