This is a story about the unintended consequences of a business decision. Siemens handed their phone division over to BenQ, and now folks like Lite-On—who make just about every optical drive in the entire world—and Quanta Computer are stuck with dead orders, scrambling to make ends meet. It's a trickle-down economy out there, folks.

Some of the smaller companies are even merging with each other just to stay afloat. I'm wondering what happened when IBM sold out to Lenovo. I'll bet an entire Pacific Rim island sank.

BenQ-Siemens merger prompts chain reaction [TaipeiTimes]

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