Five months ago, Google decided to rein in Nest. After four years as a mostly independent division of the company, Nest was rolled into Google’s hardware team.
Today, more big changes: Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz is stepping down, according to a report by CNET. The reason? Employees at Nest had reportedly been pushing for a change, hoping for someone who had more leadership experience.
This news comes just a little over two years after Fawaz took over the role after the departure of co-founder Tony Fadell.
Fawaz is said to be staying on in an advisory role, with Nest pushing forward under Rishi Chandra, who’s been overseeing most of Google’s hardware efforts (Home, Chromecast, Google WiFi, etc) as VP of Home Products for more than three years.
So what does all this mean for Nest? Further integrations between Nest’s hardware and Google’s other offerings are likely; in the past few months alone (since Google brought Nest back under its roof) Nest’s cameras have picked up support for Google’s voice-powered “Hey Google” Assistant, and its video doorbell can announce who’s at the door via Google Homes around your house.
As they confirmed to us back in February: the Nest brand itself will continue to live on at Google, and the company isn’t expecting any layoffs.
We’ve reached out to Google and Nest for more details, and will update accordingly if we hear back.
