Image: fiber.google.com/nest/Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has hired Greg Duffy, the co-founder of Dropcam in an undisclosed position according to a report first seen in The Information. Dropcam is a security camera firm that was started in 2009 before being acquired in 2014 for $555 million by the Google-owned Nest Group.
“Greg Duffy, a former Nest manager who famously called Nest co-founder Tony Fadell a ‘tyrant bureaucrat,’ has joined Apple…” The Information announced.
Special assignment
Though his role at Apple remains unclear, speculation is rife that he could be assigned any one of the special projects that Apple is always working on. Following the success of Google Home and Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Alexa, Apple is making efforts towards launching its own connected home offering in order to tap this growing segment.
Given the fact that Dropcam was essentially a home monitoring camera firm and Nest is also in the connected home offerings category, Duffy could have been tapped for a role in this area. There are also other special projects that Apple is believed to be working on such as an Augmented Reality device and the rumored Apple Car.
Leaving the Nest
Prior to the new position at Apple, Duffy’s most recent publicly known position was Entrepreneur in Residence at Google. This is the role he had taken up after leaving Nest following a fall-out with Tony Fadell, the Nest co-founder. Duffy left Google shortly after.
It is believed that the reason Duffy branded Fadell a tyrant bureaucrat was because the latter had an intensive micromanagement style at Nest and this created a hostile working environment. Also contributing to the enmity between the two men was the fact that following Nest’s acquisition of Dropcam, the connected homes firm experienced struggles which Fadell blamed entirely on the firm they had recently acquired. Duffy did not, however, take kindly to the fact that Fadell had characterized the team from Dropcam that came with the acquisition as lacking in experience. From there the gloves were off and the quarrel took on nasty proportions.
In Thursday’s trading shares of Apple Inc edged up slightly by 0.05 percent to close the day at $121.94.
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