Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside To Join Dropbox

Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside is leaving the company to join Dropbox to become the cloud storage firm’s first ever chief operating officer.

Woodside had led Motorola since its acquisition by Google nearly a year and a half ago and under his stewardship, the company released the well-received Moto G and Moto X smartphones. However his departure was sealed by Google’s subsequent sale to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo for $2.91 billion (£1.76bn) last month.

Moving on

Woodside had worked for Google since 2003, primarily in sales, helping to build out the company’s business in Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia, before becoming president of the Americas sales operation. Prior to joining Motorola Mobility, he was Google’s vice president of Americas operations, managing the company’s relationships with partners and advertising agencies.

His position at Motorola will be filled by Jonathan Rosenberg, the former head of product management at Google, whose appointment will be confirmed soon, reports the Wall Street Journal. Rosenberg will be responsible for the day-to-day management of Motorola Mobility until the Lenovo deal is completed, which is expected by the end of the year following Federal approval.

Dropbox has grown rapidly since its founding in 2007, with over 200 million users worldwide. Last month it closed a $250 million round of funding which valued the company at $10 billion (£6.1 billion), making it one of the most valuable businesses in Silicon Valley. That most recent investment brought the total amount poured into the company over the £500 million mark, and fuelled speculation that it is likely to soon go public on the stock market, which Woodside will hope to oversee.

Woodside’s appointment will help Dropbox as it looks to target the enterprise space and expand its operations around the globe. The company unveiled its new Dropbox For Business service in November 2013, which provided several perks for business users, including advanced protection controls, and the ability to access both work and personal files (via separate tabs) in one linked account.

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