Really. I get that the business world is dynamic and not adapting to changing times kills companies, but so does torpedoing a long-established and recognized name. It’s not just HBO, there have been many examples it seems recently, as somehow the suggestion to just drop what your customers look for and use something different and worse is a common boardroom thing, and with applause and promotions. It’s stupid. It’s great for ad and marketing firms I guess, but I’ll bet a typical first utterance is:

“Why are they getting rid of their old trademark, it’s good.”

“Shhh, this is worth a lot to us, let them make their mistakes.”