Bloomberg today reports that Google will replace current Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha with a Google executive when it completes the acquisition. According to “three people familiar with the matter,” Google will appoint Dennis Woodside to succeed Jha. Woodside, a Google senior vice president, is already working on the merger and is likely already quite familiar with Motorola’s business.
Google announced its intention to buy Motorola last summer. It obtained both U.S. and EU approvals last week. The US$12.5 billion acquisition is expected to help it deal with Android legal challenges thanks to the more than 17,000 patents Motorola owns. It plans to let Motorola to continue to operate as a separate company but that line may already be blurring if it is appointing Google executives to lead it.
A Motorola spokesperson would only say that “We’re focused on running the business and getting the deal closed and wouldn’t comment beyond that on executive changes.”
Read more: Bloomberg