Tony Fadell flies from faltering Nest

Tony Fadell has stepped down as chief executive of Nest, the smart device firm owned by Google's parent company Alphabet. His departure concludes a turbulent two year period that started when Google bought Nest for $3.2bn (£2bn).

Tony Fadell will remain an advisor to Alphabet

There had been reports of complaints from staff about the management of the business, and criticism of its slow roll-out of new products.

But in a lengthy blog post published on Friday, Mr Fadell said the move had planned for some time.
"This transition has been in progress since late last year and while I won't be present day to day at Nest, I'll remain involved in my new capacity as an advisor to Alphabet and [its chief executive] Larry Page.

Nest's smoke and carbon monoxide alarm was pulled from sale when a serious bug was found

"This will give me the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries."
Mr Fadell is being replaced by Marwan Fawaz. He used to run Motorola's Home division, and is expected to bring his expertise in connected devices to Nest as it attempts to build on the early success of the Nest thermostat.

'Catapulted'

Mr Fadell was praised on Friday by Mr Page. "Under Tony's leadership, Nest has catapulted the connected home into the mainstream, secured leadership positions for each of its products, and grown its revenue in excess of 50% year over year since they began shipping products," he wrote.

"He's a true visionary and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as advisor to Alphabet." The kind words between Mr Fadell and his superiors and successor will not distract from the dramatic, often public events over the past year.

From the product side, sales of Nest's smoke and carbon monoxide alarm Protect were halted when the company discovered the alarm could be accidentally disabled if someone waved their arms underneath it. Customers were offered a full refund.