Google reportedly to part ways with China on April 10

April 10: General Robert E. Lee's last address to Confederate troops, the Titanic's departure from Southampton, England, my friend Jake's birthday, and now, Google's rumored pull-out date in China. The company is preparing to announce its decision as soon as March 22, according to an anonymous source speaking to the China Business News, though it likely won't be the end of the company's operations in the region.

The newspaper's source, quoted by Bloomberg, said that Google's Chinese staff will find out what their options are on March 22 as well. Previously, Google had told them that they could either move to the US to work at Google's headquarters or that they could work for Google's Asia-Pacific business.

Chinese officials have been warning Google's partners to continue censoring search results in the event that the company decides to either open the floodgates on taboo topics or pull out altogether. Though some believe Google has already begun to let some results leak through, it seems as if the official decision has not yet been made.

Google will continue its Asia-Pacific operations, even if Google.cn ends up going away.

Source: Arstechnica.com