Google boots Tony Fadell from Nest - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: LabSpokane
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2016, 10:21:10 pm
content: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/06/03/nest-ceo-tony-fadell-is-leaving-google-amid-internal-turmoil/#3b385a7e22aaAntonio's soon to be famous last words:Quote

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 04, 2016, 02:24:01 am
content: forbes seems to need a login id to read the article?

author: LabSpokane
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 04, 2016, 03:56:54 am
content: Tony Fadell, the charismatic former Apple AAPL +0.21% executive and co-founder of Nest, the smart-home gadget maker that Google GOOGL -1.13% bought for $3.2 billion, is leaving the company, now a unit of Alphabet , amid reports of poor results, internal turmoil and staff departures.In a blog post announcing his departure published on Friday, Fadell, who was Nest’s CEO, wrote that his departure had been in the works since late last year. He also said that he will remain involved as an advisor to Alphabet and its CEO Larry Page.Former vice president of Motorola Mobility Marwan Fawaz will take over as Nest’s CEO. Nest declined to make Fawaz available for an interview at this time.“This will give me the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries – and to support others who want to do the same – just as we’ve done at Nest,” Fadell wrote. “We should all be disrupters!”Spending no time on the company’s reported difficulties in the blog post, Fadell instead choose to highlight some of company’s successes: Nest’s revenue has grown 50% annually; its third-generation Learning Thermostat has sold one million units “in half the time as the previous generation;” and more than 12,000 retail stores now carry Nest products. “Considering that when Nest launched less than five years ago, connected home sections didn’t exist at retail, it isn’t an understatement to say that the connected home went mainstream because of Nest,” Fadell wrote.In a statement, Page praised Fadell: “Under Tony’s leadership, Nest has catapulted the connected home into the mainstream, secured leadership positions for each of its products, and grown its revenue in excess of 50% year over year since they began shipping products. He’s a true visionary and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as advisor to Alphabet. I’m delighted that Marwan will be the new Nest CEO and am confident in his ability to deepen Nest’s partnerships, expand within enterprise channels, and bring Nest products to even more homes.”A former Apple hardware executive who helped to lead the development of the iPod and iPhone, Fadell started Nest in 2011 with Apple intern Matt Rogers. The company’s quickly captured the media’s attention with its so-called Learning Thermostat. It went on to raise more than $80 million from big-name venture capitalists like KPCB, Google Ventures, Venrock, Shasta Ventures, Generation Capital and Lightspeed.Fadell’s departure leaves open the question how successful Nest operated as an independent unit of the Alphabet. According to a source at Nest, Google and Nest have plans to roll more its technologies together over the next year. Perhaps its independence is at risk too. Google has been getting serious about hardware with the hire of former Motorola chief Rick Osterloh, who oversees all of the company’s hardware projects.When Google acquired the company in 2014, Fadell seemed destined to lead Google’s hardware efforts. He became involved in experimental hardware projects like Google Glass. But problems soon started surfacing. Nest’s smoke detector was recalled following software problems that would accidentally turn off an alarm based on user movement. It acquired smart camera maker Dropcam for $555 million, but the integration of the two companies did not go smoothly. Former Dropcam employees complained of Nest’s arrogance and began departing the company en masse, including its two cofounders, Greg Duggy and Aarmir Virani. Duffy would go on to describe Fadell as a “tyrant bureaucrat” responsible for holding back progress.