This page: https://multicians.org/project-mac.html links to oral history transcripts from Fano, Corby and Dennis. Only Corby: https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107230 http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/05/102658041-… was involved when Bell Labs came on board; he says: "Also Bell Labs was interested in acquiring a new computer system. They were quite intrigued and sympathetic to the notions of what we were doing. Ed David down there was a key figure and an old friend of Fano. They decided to become partners (pg. 16, CHM interview) "Simultaneously, Bell Labs had been looking for a new computer acquisition for their laboratories, and they had been scouting out GE. There was some synergism: because they knew we were interested they got interested. I think they first began to look independently of us. But they saw the possibility of our developing a new operating system together." (pg. 43, CBI interview) So it sounds like it was kind of a mutual thing, aided by the connection between Fano and David (who left Bell after Bell bailed on multics). Noel