Dennis Woodside steps down as CEO of Motorola, Lenovo remains optimistic they can turn things around
With Motorola transitioning into the hands of new owner Lenovo, we’ve been wondering exactly what kind of restructuring would follow the move. Well, after only 18 months with the the company, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside announced today via the company blog that he’s officially leaving for greener pastures. Apparently, Woodside found a cushy new gig as the first Chief Operating Officer of Dropbox, with Jonathan Rosenburg stepping in as COO of Motorola Mobility come April 1st (great timing).
With Motorola continually bleeding money every year, we can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Of course, Woodside didn’t comment on what motivated the move, but perhaps Dennis wasn’t too excited at the prospect of a corner office in China.
Speaking of Lenovo, Bloomberg held an interview with Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing about the future of the company and their plans for Motorola. Even though Motorola had an operating loss of $1 billion last year, Yang seemed optimistic that Lenovo would turn the ship around. In fact, he intends to have Motorola in the green in a few quarters once Lenovo successfully reintroduces the brand back into China.
Even without Motorola’s help, Lenovo’s smartphone shipments hit a record 13.9 million units last quarter. As far as Motorola employees making the move over to Lenovo, Yang said more than 3,500 Motorola workers were being transferred.