Apple Tried to Poach Motorola's New CEO From Google

Apple CEO Tim Cook personally tried to hire Google senior executive Dennis Woodside away from the company to be Apple's head of sales, according to a Bloomberg report.

To get Woodside to stay, Google CEO Larry Page promised him greater responsibility. He has now made good on his promise by making Woodside CEO of Motorola.


Woodside says he was speaking with board member Ram Shriram when Page asked him to run Motorola Mobility, the company Google had just acquired for $12.5 billion. "He said, 'I know you've been looking for a challenge,'" Woodside recalls. "'I want you to run Motorola. I think you'd be great at it. Can you let me know by tonight?'"

Of course, Woodside agreed and with the acquisition of Motorola formally closing today, he is the officially the new CEO of the company.

Woodside says he has three goals for Motorola. He wants to get the division to profitability, use Google's ample engineering resources to pursue ambitious technical goals such as extending battery life and improving digital photography, and then get those innovations into Motorola devices as fast as possible.