
Google’s Internal Memo On Motorola’s Sale To Lenovo - singhit
http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/heres-googles-internal-memo-on-motorolas-sale-to-lenovo/
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Stratoscope
> 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.

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jmccree
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...

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Cookingboy
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...

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asdfologist
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).

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

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

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codys
> 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.

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raldi
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.

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

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

