Google Glass just lost its business chief

It seems like there’s no end of negative news for Google Glass these days. After barely a year of serving as the business chief for Google Glass, Chris O’Neill has announced that he’s leaving the position, just a few months after Google announced that it would be shutting down the Google Glass Explorer Program. O’Neill will remain at the company, but control of Google Glass is being handed over to Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest Labs.

Chris O’Neill, the business chief for Google Glass, is leaving the position after thirteen months. O’Neill was named head of global business operations at Google X, the company’s moonshot division, in May 2014, the same month Google hired design and marketing exec Ivy Ross as its maiden chief executive. O’Neill is staying at the company, he told Re/code. A Google spokeswoman confirmed he led business operations for Glass, but did not comment further. In January, Google shut down its Explorer Program, which sold the headset for $1,500. The company announced Glass had “graduated” from Google X and was being handed over to Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest Labs. Fadell now oversees its next consumer iteration, albeit separately from the home automation division. Ross and the Glass team report to him, but they do not work with staff from Nest. Although Glass shut down consumer sales, it has kept its enterprise operation open, selling the headgear to companies like automotive and medical equipment manufacturers.