Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola announced today that it would be appointing Qualcomm’s former COO Sanjay Jha to head up its ailing handset division — much to the chagrin of our own Ryan Block. Jha will also take on co-executive duties for the parent company along with current CEO Greg Brown. The news comes hot on the heels of speculation that the electronics-maker will spin off its mobile phone wing as a separate, publicly traded entity, though chatter persists that an outright sale of the division may be more economically advisable at this stage. So here’s the question that begs asking: why has Moto gone the co-CEO route? Whether it’s a matter of the board’s confidence in Brown’s abilities, or a by-product of some unseen moves, it comes off as unusual at best.

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Filed under: Gaming

No need to phone in the shock police — you had to know this was coming. After all, what kind of stockholder-pleasing company would Nintendo be if it wasn’t already thinking about how to top the Wii? According to information in a recent Forbes piece surveying the field of gaming consoles, Nintendo is “already working on the Wii’s successor.” President Satoru Iwata shared that the Big N was “always preparing for the next hardware,” though it would be unwise to expect said hardware anytime soon. With Wii consoles still hard (or at least not “easy“) to come by in some locales, we’d say Nintendo is in no hurry to move beyond its current cash cow. Still, even Iwata admits that it “will be difficult” to exceed expectations now that the Wii has proven so successful. Not really, though — throw in high-def support and you’ve got an entirely more lovable machine.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Don’t say the writing wasn’t already littering the walls, because it was. Just months after AMD hacked its workforce by 10% and let its CTO walk away without being replaced, the company’s second CEO after Jerry Sanders has spent his last day in AMD’s biggest corner office. Hector Ruiz has decided to walk away from his role in the flagging outfit, leaving his right hand man (that would be Dirk Meyer) to take over whatever there is to take over. Of note, Mr. Ruiz will still have ties with the company as he remains on its board of directors as “executive chairman,” though it’s hard to say how much influence he’ll have from there. Really though, what’s next?

[Thanks, nehemoth]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It’s not like Acer’s Gianfranco Lanci (shown right) was hurtin’ for cash — after all, the guy was (and still is) president of the company — but there’s just nothing quite like slapping “and CEO” on the end of said title. Approved by the outfit’s Board of Directors today, Mr. Lanci has been promoted to Chairman, while the previous CEO, J.T. Wang, will serve as Acer Group CEO. From what we can tell, there’s no hard feelings about any of the moves, and c’mon, it is nice to move from one corner office to another every now and then, you know?

[Via PCWorld]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Without any definitive rhyme nor reason, it appears that Leica’s CEO, Steven K. Lee, has been “removed from power by the company’s supervisory board.” Reportedly, Mr. Lee has been replaced by the firm’s owner and board chairman Andreas Kaufman, who will run the company jointly with board financial controller and treasurer, Andreas Lobejäger, until later this month. Interestingly, we’re not told who will pick up the reins permanently after that — nor exactly why the decision was made — but we suppose it’s only a matter of hours before we find out.

[Via 1001 Noisy Cameras]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sky Dayton, founder and chairman of the phantasmagorical Helio, has announced that he’s stepping down as CEO to become chairman of the board of the last-man-standing MVNO. Dayton will be replacing Jinwoo So, as chairman of the board, while himself being replaced by Wonhee Sull, formerly the company’s president and COO. “Helio has reached a point in its development where I feel the timing is right for this change… As we have for the past three years, the two of us will continue to define Helio’s direction and future,” said Dayton. It’s possible that with the recent influx of cash (and increased ownership) from from its Korean parents and the dwindling marketshare of MVNOs meant that SK felt it was time to step in and get things on track.

Update: Lots of fun title inaccuracies going on up in here. See above for the latest, correct edits.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

With falling subscriber numbers and some difficult Xohm decisions to be made in the coming months, Sprint wanted a new man at the helm, and has picked Dan Hesse for the job. Dan’s replacing Gary Forsee, who held the job since 2003 and was pegged for replacement since August. Hesse hails from Sprint spin-off Embarq, and served as CEO of AT&T Wireless from 1997 to 2000, back in the glory years of that service. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t axe the WiMAX, but it’s clear something has got to change in Sprint land to turn things around.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In most jobs, if you cost the company money and generally screw up, you can expect a solid dressing-down from the management and then a swift boot out the door. Unless you run a major corporation like AMD. If you’re Hector Ruiz, CEO of the ailing chipmaker, you can freely and openly admit to fouling up the works and still get yourself a tidy raise, it seems. “We blew it and we’re very humbled by it and we learned from it and we’re not going to do it again,” Ruiz said on Thursday, just before the board of directors raised his $1,046,358 salary to $1,124,000 — a 7.4-percent gain. Oh, did we mention the nearly $13 million in stock options too? Hey, just because you tacked on $3.7 billion dollars in long term debt and your stock plummeted 56.2-percent doesn’t mean you’re doing a bad job… although we can’t think of another way to describe it.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In most jobs, if you cost the company money and generally screw up, you can expect a solid dressing-down from the management and then a swift boot out the door. Unless you run a major corporation like AMD. If you’re Hector Ruiz, CEO of the ailing chipmaker, you can freely and openly admit to fouling up the works and still get yourself a tidy raise, it seems. “We blew it and we’re very humbled by it and we learned from it and we’re not going to do it again,” Ruiz said on Thursday, just before the board of directors raised his $1,046,358 salary to $1,124,000 — a 7.4-percent gain. Oh, did we mention the nearly $13 million in stock options too? Hey, just because you tacked on $3.7 billion dollars in long term debt and your stock plummeted 56.2-percent doesn’t mean you’re doing a bad job… although we can’t think of another way to describe it.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Man, talk about being all over the map. One day Sony’s Howard Stringer is calling the format war a “stalemate,” the next he’s claiming Blu-ray is “just a better format.” Apparently, having a few weeks to think over that last comment made him realize that his heart was more connected to the first proclamation, as the exec has now come forward and acknowledged that the battle between red and Blu is far from over. Specifically, he stated that “[Blu-ray] had momentum,” but he followed up by calling the aforementioned momentum “all it had at the moment.” C’mon Mr. Stringer — pick a line and hold steady, will ya?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola announced today that Ed Zander will be relinquishing the role of Chief Executive Officer in January 2008, a title he will have held for four years. Greg Brown, current President and Chief Operating Officer, will take over as CEO, while Zander will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors until at least May of next year. Zander, who came to Moto from Sun Microsystems, will perhaps best be remembered for overseeing the company during its RAZR-led handset revival.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint is currently looking for Gary Forsee’s successor. Apparently, the firm’s board began “quietly looking for a new leader in August,” suggesting that key members had lost faith in current management. A new chief executive could be named by early December, and it’s looking like the replacement will indeed be hired from outside of the company. Notably, the future of Sprint’s substantial investment in WiMAX remains foggy, as certain analysts have questioned the sensibility of such a large commitment to a technology “that is so far unproven commercially.” Regardless, it looks like a change in strategy will be the number one priority moving forward. [Warning: read link required subscription]

[Via BloggingStocks]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint is currently looking for Gary Forsee’s successor. Apparently, the firm’s board began “quietly looking for a new leader in August,” suggesting that key members had lost faith in current management. A new chief executive could be named by early December, and it’s looking like the replacement will indeed be hired from outside of the company. Notably, the future of Sprint’s substantial investment in WiMAX remains foggy, as certain analysts have questioned the sensibility of such a large commitment to a technology “that is so far unproven commercially.” Regardless, it looks like a change in strategy will be the number one priority moving forward. [Warning: read link required subscription]

[Via BloggingStocks]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Niklas Zennström, who we had the pleasure of sitting down with nearly three years ago for an interview, is officially stepping down as CEO of Skype. Reportedly, he will now become the non-executive chairman of the Skype Board of Directors, and while searching for a “permanent successor,” eBay’s Chief Strategy Officer (Michael van Swaaij) will take the reigns as acting CEO. Additionally, “Henry Gomez, Skype’s President, who remained a Senior Vice President at eBay during his two-year tenure at Skype, will return to eBay as Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs.” Lastly, eBay also made known that it has paid out €375 million (around $530 million) “to settle all of its future obligations under the earn-out agreement signed with certain Skype shareholders when eBay acquired Skype in 2005.”

[Thanks, Randall B.]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Nikon doesn’t look to have gone very far to find a new President and CEO for its Nikon Inc. subsidiary, with the company announcing today that Yasuyuki Okamoto, a 29-year veteran of the company, will be stepping into both roles. That still leaves Michio Kariya as the top boss of parent-company Nikon Corp, with Okamoto responsible for North, Central and South American markets. Most recently, Okamoto served as the general manager and operating officer at Nikon’s Marketing headquarters for its Imaging unit, with him previously serving as general manager of corporate communications for Nikon Corporation in Japan, and president of Nikon France SA before that.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!