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Nest CEO steps down as division is brought under the Google Home team
Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz is stepping down as the smart home gadget maker is reshuffled yet again, now operating under the Google division responsible for the company's Home smart speakers, according to a report from CNET. Just five months ago, Fawaz oversaw Nest's reintegration under Google; for the last three years, Nest operated as an independent entity under Google parent company Alphabet.
The decision to bring Nest back under the Google umbrella was designed to help hardware chief Rick Osterloh better integrate Nest products with Google's own hardware and software, much of it increasingly driven by artificial intelligence advances. Now, Fawaz is taking on an advisory role, and Nest will be overseen by Rishi Chandra, the vice president of product management for Google's home and living room products. CNET reports that many inside the company felt that Fawaz was not an adequate leader of Nest and more of an operations manager, and the change is reportedly a welcome one.
[...] CNET reports that Alphabet even considered selling Nest in 2016 to none other than Amazon, with talks described as "serious discussions" in an effort known internally as Project Amalfi. Though Fadell reportedly scuttled the deal by threatening to leave, which he would go on to do later that year regardless, it seems like Alphabet leadership has struggled to help Nest grow and find its place within its complex corporate structure.
Also at MarketWatch and TechCrunch.
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(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 18 2018, @10:25PM
It is entirely a coincidence, but last night I watched Episode 1, Season 3 of Silicon Valley in which the odious Gavin Belson fires a whole team.
Without reading TFA, (or even caring about Nest at all) I pictured the whole thing in my mind as going pretty much like that.