Andy Rubin, the man that, in his own words “sponsored” the Google buyout of Motorola, says that he hasn’t seen what Motorola is working on right now. In fact, he says this about Moto:
“nothing to do with it…. I don’t even know who’s running it.”
The claim is that Google has put up a firewall between the Android team and the Motorola business, all done in a effort to show no preferential treatment to Moto. If true, Google is following through on one of its pledges to US and European regulators. They are actually going to do everything that they can to prevent giving Motorola an inside track against the other Android OEM’s, and will indeed run Motorola as a separate business.
Is it actually true? My guess, it is true. I still believe that Google will release their own branded Nexus phones, and that they will use the existing Motorola manufacturing relationships to make it happen. They just won’t be Moto designed. In fact, thanks to the Google firewall, Moto won’t have much of an idea at all of what is coming from the Android team.
Google is also rumored to be replacing Sanjay Jha, the current Motorola CEO who pushed hard for the sale to Google, with a veteran Google ad manager named Dennis Woodside. Smart money says that Sanjay is on his way out as soon as the acquisition closes. Whether or not Mr. Woodside is the one to take his place won’t matter. A veteran Googler will take the helm, firewall or no.
Source: The Verge