In the case of Lenovo the brand was sold by IBM to a third party who immediately drove it into the ground.
funny thing is that none if the issues have ever been found on the thinkpad libe, only the ideapad line.
True and I'd still look at Thinkpads if I had to buy a new machine, but knowing what they did with the E, Y, G and Edge series would make me always look a bit harder at other brands first from now on.
It happened to Lenovo and other laptops when they started installing spyware (Superfish) on their machines. They basically ruined the brand image that took years to build up.