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Alphabet's internet balloon chief leaves after 6 months
Alphabet's Project Loon is running into some figurative turbulence in addition to the literal kind. Tom Moore, the satellite executive who was brought on as CEO to help Project Loon become a full-fledged business, has left the leadership position after just 6 months. It's not clear why he's on the way out (neither he nor Alphabet are commenting), but he's being replaced by Alastair Westgarth, a wireless industry veteran best known for turning startups into viable companies. His "vision" for the internet balloon project matches the strategy of Alphabet's X division, "approaching huge programs, at scale, to improve the lives of millions or billions of people," the company says.
Google hires satellite exec to head up Project Loon
The Project Loon team has been conducting successful tests in different parts of the globe for quite some time, but they've yet to release a commercial product. Google's new hire could change that. The tech titan has signed up Viasat exec Tom Moore to become the team's new general manager by mid-September. Moore originally joined the satellite communications provider when it acquired the company he co-founded. Now, his role is to steer the Loon ship into its next phase and make the internet balloons' commercial deployment a reality.
