ParisLemon

Tero Kuittinen of BGR:

It is hard not to admire Sanjay Jha’s cool genius in handling Motorola’s sale to Google. He leveraged Motorola’s old sales contacts in Asia and Latin America to push nondescript models into sales channel, creating an illusion of international traction during 2010 and early 2011. He created a shadow play of a healthy AT&T relationship, feeding expectations of substantial sales growth for Motorola’s business in the United States. For a brief time, Motorola seemed like a company in healthy shape.

Then Google announced its intent to buy Motorola in the summer of 2011 and the glamor flaked off like glitter lipstick from a Chicago prostitute in dawn’s cold light.

I’m shocked that Google is replacing a guy who managed to lose $80 million last quarter. Almost as shocked as I am that Google is buying this company losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year for $12.5 billion. 

Let me reiterate my stance that Sanjay Jha is a wizard. He’ll likely walk away with tens of millions of dollars for pulling this thing off.

Well, this lends some credence to the notion that Jha may have helped push Google towards an outright acquisition instead of just a patent buy or licensing agreement. It’s certainly interesting that just days before the deal was done, Jha was suggesting that Motorola could go after other Android players over IP.

This also suggests that Jha could well see as much as $120 million over the past three years if he exits. Which in turn suggests he might not stick around Google/Motorola for long.

And that’s all for running a company that’s losing money. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that he provided a big windfall for investors.