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You don't need to mandate a short term view when the executive's massive pay packages depend on stock valuations: They will chase the money all by themselves, not trying to build a company that might make major discoveries eventually

Or maybe they had to be, with interest and tax rates what they were?

Could you elaborate or be more specific? Given how long BL existed, I’m not sure I can pin down what rates you’re talking about

One of the commenters on the original article said "Bell Labs was funded through a 1% tax on Bell's overall revenue, as well as a claim on a portion of Western Electric's revenue, so yes, AT&T was able to recoup Bell Labs' expenses."

This would protect it from (at least certain types of) C-suite predation presumably.

AT&T wasn't publicly traded until 1984, so there's a clue for you right there

By 1984 AT&T had been listed on the NYSE for over 80 years.

“The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was listed on the NYSE on Sept. 4, 1901. Only 11 other companies have been listed longer than AT&T.“

Yeah, impressively wrong gp! 1984 was when they were broken up by Justice Department.