Motorola's Home Unit Hires New Leader

LR Cable News Analysis Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading 6/28/2012

Dan Moloney is stepping down as president of Motorola Mobility LLC 's Home division and is being succeeded by Marwan Fawaz, another cable industry vet who most recently served as the chief technology officer of Charter Communications Inc. It marks one of the biggest executive shifts so far since Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) closed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility late last month.

Fawaz starts today (June 28) as the executive VP of Motorola Home, effectively heading up a unit that makes set-top boxes, cable modems and access gear. Moloney, who is leaving Moto to "pursue other opportunities" after almost 30 years with the company, is staying on through mid-July to help with the transition.

In a related move, Motorola Home CTO Geoff Roman is also leaving the company at the end of the month. Matt Bell, another ex-Charter exec, has stepped in to become SVP of strategy and technology at Moto.

Fawaz, also the former CTO of Adelphia Communications (Adelphia's systems were divvied up between Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) in 2005), and Bell recently started up Sarepta Advisors , an advisory firm based in the Denver area. (See Cable Vets Form Media Advisory Firm and Time Warner, Comcast Buy Adelphia.)

Fawaz, who still lives in the Denver area, will be commuting to his new job, a Motorola spokeswoman said. Moto's Home unit is based in Horsham, Pa.

Why this matters
The new leadership keeps Motorola's Home unit cable friendly, as it's still being run by an industry vet with deep ties with both vendors and cable operators. Google has not outlined a long-term plan for the Home division, but the question now is whether the appointment of Fawaz and Bell will simmer speculation that Google's looking to unload the Home division or spark even more.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable