Lenovo To Outsource Notebook Production

First the venerable Thinkpad went from being an American classic to what some considered was a foreign knock-off. Now this?

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/s...ook_production

Lenovo purchased all of IBM's laptop lines a few years back.

Yeah, IBM sold off the asset that was their PC Division (also consumer/business desktops, but the really valuable part was the notebooks) to Lenovo 3 years ago in 2005. Lenovo now makes the ThinkPad and all other (what previously were) IBM PCs/Notebooks. IBM continues to run server, programming, IT, IP, management consulting, business consulting, product development, and several other divisions.

Think of it this way: For 20 years you own and run a very successful business. It began as Skillz's lemonade stand, but eventually evolved into a full blown restaurant with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You still operate the small lemonade stand, which is still very profitable, but your restaurant business has grown to be your main concern and you really would like to focus exclusively on the food portion of your business. But since the lemonade stand out in front of your business is still viable and won't compete with your restaurant, you see no reason to close it. So what do you do? You sell it. You sell the stand, the right to call it Skillz's lemonade, the recipe, the customer list, etc. And the owner takes it over and runs it much the same as you did. He gets a profitable business and brand name and you get $ today to put into your restaurant and now can focus on it exclusively. Everyone wins.

(Except maybe the consumer if the new owner of Skillz lemonade cuts corners, has bad service, or screws with the recipe. Or in the case of ThinkPad notebooks.... outsources production).