[ilkhd2]

See, all these monstrous old companies such as IBM and HP, they hire pure scientists such as Chaitin and this guy, and every once in awhile it pays off. I have feeling, yonger companies, with their own research departments, they are still very down to earth, and look for immediate profit from R&D.

[werrett]

To quote the announcement email which zacs posted earlier:

  This work was pursued independently of my duties as 
  a HP Labs researcher, and without the knowledge of 
  others. I made several unsuccessful attempts these 
  past two years trying other combinations of ideas 
  before I began this work.

So based off this solitary data point, it seems that while they might hire the brains it doesn't necessarily follow that they have free rein to work on esoteric "non-profitable" projects.

[dmoney]

I don't know if "paid off" is the right word. If P were equal to NP, HP would probably benefit from finding out first. Assuming this is correct, though, all they get is the satisfaction of having hired the guy who happened to discover the proof in his spare time.