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Googorola's Dennis Woodside shuffles over to Dropbox

Ex-Google and Motorola bod leaves for cloud biz ahead of Lenovo sale

Googorola employee Dennis Woodside has reportedly been lured away from his role as chief exec of Motorola Mobility, ahead of its sale to Lenovo, to the newly created chief operating officer position at cloud sync and backup firm Dropbox.

Woodside has been with Google for more than ten years and most recently headed up the Moto handset business for the Chocolate Factory, but will be leaving to oversee Dropbox's online storage business in the new COO role, people familiar with the matter told Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

The appointment was later confirmed by Google chief exec Larry Page, who said that top Googlers Nikesh Arora and Jonathan Rosenberg would be taking over Woodside's duties.

"Dennis and the team have reinvented Motorola, with wonderful products like Moto X and Moto G," Page said. "I wish him all the best with his new big job at Dropbox."

Rosenberg, who used to be head of product management for Google, will become chief operating officer of Moto backed up by Arora, who is Google's chief business officer and the executive chairman of Moto's operating board.

The reshuffle comes just ahead of the sale of Moto's handset biz to Chinese firm Lenovo, which is planning to pay $2.9bn for the firm, pending regulatory approval of the acquisition.

Over at Dropbox, the firm is trying to expand its business customer base while also pondering a potential IPO. The company's latest funding round secured $350m from investors including BlackRock and T. Rowe Price, valuing the firm at $10bn. ®

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