With China giving their approval of Google’s acquisition of Motorola over the weekend, both companies said it would be a matter of days before they closed. It took two, as they finalized the deal this morning.

Google made sure to mention that Motorola will remain a separate company and that they will license Android, which will remain open. They also noted that Sanjay Jha will step down as CEO of Motorola and that Dennis Woodside, a senior VP at Google, will take his place as the new CEO of Motorola. This move was rumored all the way back in February. Jha will help as he can to ensure a smooth transition. For those concerned about Jha, know that he made $47 million last year and also plans to take home a massive check for stepping down, now that this deal has been completed.

There were no immediate plans for change specifically noted in the press release this morning other than the fact that Woodside has brought on an all-star team of industry leaders to help the company going forward.

Now that the deal is done, are you ready to see this merger “supercharge” Android? 

Oh, boy. According a report from Bloomberg, current Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha will be replaced by Dennis Woodside, who is a senior VP at Google and has been leading the transition of the two companies and reporting directly to CEO Larry Page.

Now that the merger has essentially been signed off on, we sort of expected there to be some shuffling up at the top. But dropping Sanjay? Did anyone see that coming? OK, be real, many of you were certainly hoping this would happen after 2 years of questionable moves by Motorola’s smartphone division and what seems to be declining sales quarter after quarter.

Neither Motorola nor Google would confirm the move, but Bloomberg seems to be satisfied with their 3 sources who of course, will remain nameless.

If you are wondering how Sanjay will survive going forward, rumor has it that he will make somewhere around $66 million extra thanks to pushing this merger into the lap of Google. I’d say he should be able to put dinner on the table for a couple of years.

And yeah, I’m dying to hear your thoughts on this one.

Via:  Bloomberg