Citrix kills Sydney research lab, vows to focus on 'core products'

IME it means that they're not going to have a centre of excellence any more, which could invent anything novel. Instead they're going to spread their best engineering resources over multiple product lines where they'll spend their time doing day-to-do day firefighting. In other words, short termism.

The language is (sadly) comprehensible

When you read something like that and your brain hurts the first impulse is to think "but that just seems like a big old crock-o-shite: clearly they misspoke", whereas actually they've clearly communicated that their business thinking is that crock.

Once-upon-a-time I worked in a UK group that had been developing various chunks of networking stack for over 10 years and was 80% through a major redesign. One fine day we got EXCITING NEWS! The entire subsystem was being transferred in a couple of months to an already overloaded Scandinavian team and the UK group was taking over development of a media player from the USA. The lack of technology affinity was so glaring that the pink ribbon wrapped around the steaming turd was that this was an exciting opportunity to try a new field. And the business reason for this high-risk re-org? The last re-org had gifted the UK group to a Finnish director and he was finding the travel too wearying, so clearly the thing to do was to move the mountain to Mohammed.

Of course the transplant largely failed and then a subsequent re-org moved that director elsewhere (but not before many of the old hands had jumped ship). And then after he'd worked his special magic upon another division later another re-org moved him back again... The company concerned has progressively collapsed upon itself and now resembles a pulsar but for all I know he's still in its core, spinning rapidly as he helps to throw off its remaining energy

Re: "Focus on our core businesses"

"Is that PHB speak for we will be filing for bankruptcy in the next 3 to 5 years and out of business in within the next 10?"

More or less. It more accurately translates as, "Getting rid of R&D is a sure way to short term profit, then we'll keep selling what we produce now for a profit, with the occasional round of lay-offs to keep the stock price up.

When it crashes, my cronies and I will be long gone, with fat bonuses and golden parachutes all around.

Re: "Focus on our core businesses"

I figured it meant "we expect to be acquired by CA in the next year or two".