Dennis Woodside
According to foreign media reports on Thursday, three informed sources revealed that with the approval of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility by U.S. regulators, Google is planning to nominate Dennis Woodside as the new CEO of Motorola Mobility after the final completion of the deal.
Woodside was the main leader guiding Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Previously, he had also served as the head of Google's advertising sales department in the Americas region. An anonymous informed source disclosed that after the acquisition is completed, Woodside will replace the current CEO of Motorola Mobility, Sanjay Jha, to become the new CEO.
Previously, Google spent $12.5 billion acquiring Motorola Mobility, which will enable the company to obtain more than 17,000 patents. This will help the company build a repository to deal with patent legal disputes for its Android smartphone operating system. Currently, the company is striving to compete with Apple Computers in the smartphone field. Apple's operating system can only run on its own iPhone products, while Google's Android operating system can be licensed to multiple manufacturers, allowing them to launch their own Android smartphones.
Analyst Sameet Sinha from investment firm B. Riley & Co pointed out: "The key issue lies in what kind of hardware strategy Google hopes to use to respond to Apple's challenge. It will be an interesting choice." Sinha currently rates Google as "buy," but he himself does not hold any shares.
Informed sources further revealed that Woodside is the most favored candidate on the current list of candidates, with others including Motorola Mobility Senior Vice President Christy Wyatt and Google's CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) John Bucher.
As of 3:45 PM yesterday, Google's stock price fell by less than 1% to $606.26 on the New York Stock Exchange. Motorola Mobility's stock price remained basically flat, holding at $39.71.
Google spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker refused to comment on rumors and speculations, indicating that the acquisition has not been completed yet. Motorola Mobility spokesperson Jennifer Erickson also declined to comment on the above rumors.