Dive Brief:
- Nest founder and CEO Tony Fadell announced in the company's blog last week that he will step down from his position, though he intends to stay on as an advisor to Alphabet and its CEO, Larry Page.
- Alphabet, formerly Google, purchased Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion. Earlier this year, there were reports that sales were lagging and management differences threatened a shakeup at the smart-thermostat company.
- Marwan Fawaz will take over at Nest. He was formerly head of Motorola Home, more recently consulted with Sarepta Advisors and was on the boards of a pair of customer care companies, reports The Verge.
Dive Insight:
Just a few months after analysts began raising concerns about sales at Nest, followed by media reports of company departures due to management style differences, the founder of the company has stepped down.
"While there is never a perfect time to transition, we’ve grown Nest to much more than a thermostat company," Fadell said on the company's blog. "We’ve created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years."
Fadell had high praise for Marwan, citing his "extensive technology and engineering knowledge, his experience with global service providers, as well as his background in connected home platforms. ... I have no doubt that the company will continue to flourish under his guidance."
While Alphabet does not release sales numbers for Nest, earlier this year the company included the segment in its "Other Bets" revenue tranche, which along with several other companies showed revenues of $448 million in 2015, leading to speculation that sales were lagging.
Nest acquired security camera maker Dropcam in 2014, which helped add to its sales. But Dropcam founder Greg Duffy later said he regretted selling the company, when his management style and Fadell's proved a poor match. The New York Times has insight into that situation, which led to a rise in employee departures.