SAN FRANCISCO— Sanjay Jha, who helped carve out Motorola Mobility from Motorola Inc. and served as CEO of the company since 2010, resigned Tuesday (May 22) as Google Inc. closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of the mobile handset maker.
Dennis Woodside, who has overseen integration planning for the acquisition and previously served as president of Google’s Americas region, replaces Jha as CEO of Motorola Mobility. Google said.
Jha, widely credited with turning leading a turnaround in Motorola's handset business in the later part of the last decade, will continue to work with Google to help ensure a smooth transition, Google said.
"Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing a big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO," said Larry Page, Google's CEO, in a statement. "I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility."
Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open, Google said. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business, the company said.
Woodside said his aim was to focus Motorola Mobility's talent "on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world."
Woodside announced a host of executive appointments, including Regina Dugan, a former director of DARPA; Mark Randall, former supply chain vice preisdent at Amazon and previously Nokia; Vanessa Wittman, former chief financial officer of Marsh & McLennan; Scott Sullivan, former head of human resources at Visa and Nvidia Corp., and Gary Briggs former vice president of consumer marketing at Google.
Woodside also said several members of Motorola Mobility's team would stay on in their current roles, including Vice President of of Global Product
Development Iqbal Arshad, Chief of Staff Marshall Brown and chief of sales Mark Shockley.
Jha, who joined Motorola in 2008, was formerly chief operating officer at mobile chip vendor Qualcomm Inc.
Google
announced last August it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in a move seen as its boldest and most ambitious step into the mobile handset space. Google said Tuesday the acquisition would enable Google to "supercharge the Android ecosystem" and enhance competition in mobile computing.