“The announcement yesterday that Google is to acquire Nest Labs for $3.2 billion (£1.9 billion) came as a surprise to many, with suggestions that Apple would have been the more obvious choice for the smart learning thermostat company,” Anthony Cuthbertson writes for ITProPortal. “Founded by two former Apple executives and home to many former Apple employees, it might have seemed logical that Nest would get swallowed up by the company it shares such a connection with. However, reported infighting and disillusion with his former company may well have been the reason behind Nest co-founder Tony Fadell going with Google.”
“Fadell’s history with Apple dates back to 2001 when he was hired as a contractor to work on the iPod. Within two months he was brought in by the tech giant to lead the creative design team of the product and by 2006 he was a senior vice president within the company,” Cuthbertson writes. “But somewhere along the line things turned sour between Fadell and Apple. In 2008 the company let him go amid rumours that he was not getting along with Jony Ive, Apple’s lead hardware and software designer. ‘Tony got canned,’ Leander Kanhey writes in his new book, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As usual, Google got taken to the cleaners (see: Motorola Mobility).
Related articles:
Did Tim Cook blow it by not snapping up Nest before Google? – January 13, 2014
Google to buy Nest Labs for $3.2 Billion – January 13, 2014
Tony Fadell introduces Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector – October 8, 2013
Tony Fadell, Father of the iPod: From Apple to Nest Labs, always a designer – July 24, 2013
Apple Store to sell Tony Fadell’s Nest Learning Thermostat, report claims – May 25, 2012
‘Father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell shows off his new project: Thermostats – October 25, 2011
