The Fundamental Foursquare Rebranding Question

The strategy behind this whole Foursquare shift just keeps buzzing around in my head. I was reading Sarah Lacy's Pando post on Foursquare after I published the previous one and I came across this quote from Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley in a previous Pando piece (emphasis added by me).

The press, God bless you guys, puts successful tech companies through a hazing period,” he said. He had to learn to ignore the haters because he believed that his vision — to turn check-in data into world’s best local search engine — would have value beyond check-ins and badges.

So here's the fundamental question:
You really believe in this idea of a local search engine and have all of this brand equity in your check-in app that drives the data for your search engine. Why would break the brand and identity connection between your check-in app and check-ins and replace it with your location discovery/search functionality that wasn't identified with your brand?

Why wouldn't you make the discovery/search functionality the second app?

Because two dead ducks are better than one dead one and one very strong one that doesn't know where to go?