Google’s Internal Memo On Motorola’s Sale To Lenovo | Hacker News Reader

Google’s Internal Memo On Motorola’s Sale To Lenovo

techcrunch.com

33 pointssinghit14 comments

> Lenovo intends to keep Motorola’s distinct brand identity–just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005.

In other words, they will keep the brand label on the products while destroying everything that makes the brand.

For the ThinkPad, that would be (among other things) a solid keyboard that closely matches a desktop keyboard and doesn't change from model to model, a TrackPoint with three physical buttons, a quality display, and serviceability up the wazoo.

Ask any ThinkPad fanatic like me - yes, we exist - just how good a job Lenovo has done of keeping "ThinkPad's distinct brand identity."

OK, after a few years in the darkness with low-resolution TN displays, Lenovo is finally shipping ThinkPads with modern high-DPI IPS displays. That's great!

You just have to accept their new and "improved" keyboards, and TrackPoints with no buttons, to get it.

I went T60P to T520. Its about time for an upgrade and I'm not looking forward to the keyboard setup on the W540. At least they left the trackpoint...

My T60 is bound to be replaced... sniff ;(

After checking out the current Lenovo "propositions" I'm wondering if there are meanwhile better "Thinkpads" produced by other brands... I could just put the classic/nostalgic "IBM ThinkPad" sticker on the best candidate, which I sadly suspect will not be from Lenovo.

Why would he/she leak this? First of all, it doesn't have any new information, and secondly, this would probably get him/her fired...

I've actually been always curious, why do people in general leak info to media outlets, when they could get fired or worse if they get caught? I'm not talking about whistleblowing, where there's a clear agenda to uncover some perceived injustice, but rather about things that are morally neutral and yet sensitive (i.e. company X is mulling acquiring company Y).

My favorite part is the header saying: CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT FORWARD

well it doesn't say "do not cut n paste" :)

> So please don’t speculate about the impact of the deal either outside or inside Google

So google employees aren't supposed to discuss their impression of the deal at all, even internally? That seems rather heavy handed.

That's what happens when our legal system makes every byte discoverable. All it takes is for one Googler to send an IM to another that says, "I'm not sure the sale complied with [regulation xyz]" and then, even if the two of them had nothing to do with the deal, and don't even really understand law all that well, the archive of that chat can get dragged out in court as evidence of .. god knows what.

Google has OTR on for company IMs. This came out in a court case where IMs were requested as part of discovery.

Google also has numerous avenues for having digital discussions that are not OTR. IM was just an example, obviously.

Legal issues can get complicated. It's normal for a big company.

When some says the word "speculate" (with respect to conversation, not financial investing) they are refering to armchair lawyering that gets people in trouble.

It's what happens when you go public.

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