Motorola Names Osterloh to Head Mobility Unit in Lenovo Transition

Motorola has named Rick Osterloh, formerly head of the vendor’s Product Management unit, as president and chief operating officer (COO) during the mobile device maker’s transition from Google (GOOG)-owned to Lenovo’s corporate umbrella.

Osterloh replaces Dennis Woodside, who exited Motorola last month to take Dropbox’s COO slot. Jonathan Rosenberg, a former Google Products senior vice president, has served as interim Motorola COO in the short time since Woodside’s departure. In his new role, Osterloh will report to the Motorola Operating Board at Google. 

In a blog post, Rosenberg said Osterloh had a “key role in the company’s reinvigoration. He’s been a guiding visionary on the entire product front and a passionate advocate for our philosophy to focus everything we do on the consumer experience.”

He said Osterloh’s “appointment provides the focused leadership and business continuity needed to steer the organization into the future, and I look forward to continuing in my role as Google liaison and advisor to Motorola through the transition period supporting Rick.”

At this point, Osterloh’s role after Lenovo assumes control of Motorola is unclear. The acquisition has yet to be approved by regulators.

Osterloh first joined Motorola when it acquired Good Technology in 2007 as Android corporate vice president, a post he held for three years before stepping out for a two-year stint as Skype Product Management and Design vice president until the VoIP provider was bought by Microsoft in 2012. Osterloh returned to Motorola in July 2012 as product senior vice president.

In January, Chinese PC giant Lenovo bought Motorola’s smartphone business from Google for $2.91 billion immediately following its blockbuster $2.3 billion acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business, instantly giving it ownership of three critical endpoints—from PCs to servers to mobile phones.

The sale marked the end of Google’s 21-month, $12.5 billion adventure into manufacturing mobile devices, which saw Motorola dump more than $1 billion in losses amid a steady flood of 5,000 laid off workers.

Lenovo chief executive Yang Yuanqing has said he has no plans to cut Motorola employees and will rely on economies of scale to efficiently dovetail the mobile business into the PC maker’s overall operation. Motorola now carries some 3,500 employees, having lopped nearly 90 percent of its staff in the past two years.

Liu Jun, Lenovo Mobile Business Group executive vice president, said the vendor is “pleased to learn that Motorola has named Rick Osterloh to lead Motorola Mobility, effective today.”