Last August, Google (GOOG) Chief Executive Officer Larry Page fulfilled a pledge made to one of his senior executives, a square-jawed former attorney named Dennis Woodside. Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook had been trying to poach Woodside to make him Apple’s head of sales; Google had persuaded him to stay, in part by promising him a bigger job, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, but who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Now it was time to make good.
Woodside says he was speaking with board member K. Ram Shriram when Page asked him to run Motorola Mobility, the company Google had just announced it was acquiring for $12.5 billion. “He said, ‘I know you’ve been looking for a challenge,’ ” Woodside recalls. “ ‘I want you to run Motorola. I think you’d be great at it. Can you let me know by tonight?’ ”
Woodside agreed and is now the leader of one of the most storied names in technology. Motorola, founded 84 years ago, invented the cell phone in the 1980s, made it ubiquitous in the ’90s with the StarTAC, and with the RAZR ushered in the era of stylish devices. Then it lost its way in the age of the iPhone.
Woodside says he was speaking with board member K. Ram Shriram when Page asked him to run Motorola Mobility, the company Google had just announced it was acquiring for $12.5 billion. “He said, ‘I know you’ve been looking for a challenge,’ ” Woodside recalls. “ ‘I want you to run Motorola. I think you’d be great at it. Can you let me know by tonight?’ ”
Woodside agreed and is now the leader of one of the most storied names in technology. Motorola, founded 84 years ago, invented the cell phone in the 1980s, made it ubiquitous in the ’90s with the StarTAC, and with the RAZR ushered in the era of stylish devices. Then it lost its way in the age of the iPhone.
When Google first came calling, it was mostly interested in getting Motorola’s trove of 17,000-plus patents to help defend the Android operating system against lawsuits by Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple, and others.
Woodside’s mission has since become more ambitious. Woodside says Google also plans to use its new hardware division to produce smartphones and tablets that set the pace of innovation in the mobile business. “This is a huge opportunity to really show what Android can do in a well-designed, well-packaged, and well-marketed product,” he says.
It’s also a huge gamble, certainly the biggest since Page retook the title of CEO at Google a year ago. The company became a household name—and one of the most profitable businesses ever—by sticking to online services and software.
It’s also a huge gamble, certainly the biggest since Page retook the title of CEO at Google a year ago. The company became a household name—and one of the most profitable businesses ever—by sticking to online services and software.
Now it will have to figure out the cutthroat, low-margin world of hardware. That means production lines, supply chains, and 1-800 customer help numbers. (Try finding one of those for Gmail or YouTube.) The deal could even slow the remarkable rise of Android. One reason Google’s mobile operating system powers more than half the world’s smartphones is device makers such as Samsung and HTC have felt safe licensing it.
Until now, Google was a beneficent software provider with no dog in the hardware hunt. If Woodside does his job well and makes Motorola’s phones superior, Android’s other device makers might look elsewhere for an OS.
No comments:
Post a Comment