Android By Russell Holly Feb. 13, 2014 9:30 am
Ever since Google and Lenovo announced the sale of Motorola Mobility, or at least parts of it, the world has been waiting to see how many of the Google transplants that moved over initially would be sticking around. It appears now that the first big name, in fact the biggest name, has abandoned ship for new opportunities with Dropbox.
Dennis Woodside wasn’t just appointed CEO of Motorola Mobility when Google purchased the company, he was paraded on stage by Eric Schmidt as the perfect man for the job. Schmidt explained that Dennis would lead Motorola into a new age, and it was going to be awesome. Since that time, Motorola has yet to have a profitable quarter. They have shed quite a few jobs and released two incredibly cool phones that focused more on solving problems than selling hardware, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.
In many ways Woodside can be credited with grooming Motorola for acquisition by another company, since it is likely no one would have purchased them before the Moto X launched. Still, the company is now being passed to new owners and Woodside is not sticking around to help out. Instead, he’s going to be the COO of Dropbox.
Dropbox has never had a COO before. The position was created specifically for Dennis Woodside, and it’s a good sign for the future of Dropbox. The cloud storage space has grown increasingly crowded over the last couple of years, and Dropbox choosing to hire someone to specifically focus on growth and internal streamlining will help give them an edge going forward. Woodside will be able to help Dropbox grow as a company, which means we’re even more likely to see new and exciting things from them in the coming year.
As for Lenovo, it seems unlikely that Woodside was going to remain in a top leadership position for Motorola anyway. We already knew that Lenovo was going to fold Motorola into their own brands, which means Woodside would have gone from being a CEO to working alongside second tier management. Moving to Dropbox maintained his C-level status, and allows him to explore a new company.
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Dennis Woodside wasn’t just appointed CEO of Motorola Mobility when Google purchased the company, he was paraded on stage by Eric Schmidt as the perfect man for the job. Schmidt explained that Dennis would lead Motorola into a new age, and it was going to be awesome. Since that time, Motorola has yet to have a profitable quarter. They have shed quite a few jobs and released two incredibly cool phones that focused more on solving problems than selling hardware, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.
In many ways Woodside can be credited with grooming Motorola for acquisition by another company, since it is likely no one would have purchased them before the Moto X launched. Still, the company is now being passed to new owners and Woodside is not sticking around to help out. Instead, he’s going to be the COO of Dropbox.
Dropbox has never had a COO before. The position was created specifically for Dennis Woodside, and it’s a good sign for the future of Dropbox. The cloud storage space has grown increasingly crowded over the last couple of years, and Dropbox choosing to hire someone to specifically focus on growth and internal streamlining will help give them an edge going forward. Woodside will be able to help Dropbox grow as a company, which means we’re even more likely to see new and exciting things from them in the coming year.
As for Lenovo, it seems unlikely that Woodside was going to remain in a top leadership position for Motorola anyway. We already knew that Lenovo was going to fold Motorola into their own brands, which means Woodside would have gone from being a CEO to working alongside second tier management. Moving to Dropbox maintained his C-level status, and allows him to explore a new company.
More...
