Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Hugo Barra’s Farewell Letter to Google

Hugo Barra/Google+

Hugo Barra offered a farewell to his Google colleagues Wednesday, confirming his plans to leave the company.

As first reported by AllThingsD, Barra is leaving to take a post at fast-growing Chinese phone maker Xiaomi.

“In a few weeks, I’ll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally — as Vice President, Xiaomi Global,” Barra said in the post. “I’m really looking forward to this new challenge, and am particularly excited about the opportunity to continue to help drive the Android ecosystem.”

Barra signed off by thanking his Android colleagues, calling out by name executives Andy Rubin, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Sundar Pichai and Vic Gundotra.

“Congratulations to Hugo on his exciting new adventure,” Pichai wrote. “We’ll miss him at Google but we’re thrilled that he’s sticking with Android. Best wishes Hugo!”

Xiaomi also confirmed the move in posts on Twitter and Sina Weibo.

“Hugo will be responsible for Xiaomi’s international business development and Android strategic partnerships,” Xiaomi said in a second Twitter posting.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik