Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility dates back to August 15th of last year. During the time between then and now, the search giant has had to jump a few hurdles to get this deal completed, including a setback due to the Chinese government's hesitation to approve it.
That final problem has finally been resolved, and today, Google announced that the deal is complete. Larry Page, CEO of Google, wrote in a blog post on Google's official blog that former Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha would be stepping down from his position to be replaced by "long-time Googler" Dennis Woodside. Woodside is responsible for increasing Google's US revenue from $10.8 billion to $17.5 billion in under three years at his position of President of the Americas; obviously, he's a well-qualified candidate to head up Motorola's mobile business.
Page closes the blog post by saying:
"I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come."
I think that quote means that Motorola Mobility will be run similarly to the company it has been for the past year – just with Google's blessings and checkbook. I'm certainly excited to see what 2012 and the years ahead have in store for Motorola, regardless of what happens to it next.
[Google]
The fact the Woodside did well at Google does not necessarily mean he’ll do well at Motorola. Smart and capable people are smart and capable no matter where they work, however there are significant differences between managing the business of a software/service company and that of an hardware company.
I wish all the best to Woodside and Motorola under Google ownership, but we will see… One thing Woodside could do to capitalize on the hardware arm Google has now in Motorola is to make them the provider of the “official” Google smart phones, the Nexus series. Think of the level of HW/SW integration they could reach being under the same umbrella.