Google is close to naming Dennis Woodside to head Motorola Mobility once its acquisition of the handset maker closes, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Woodside, who led Google's ad sales in the Americas before leaving that job to oversee the merger, would succeed Sanjay Jha as CEO of Motorola. Woodside emerged as a favorite from a short list that included Christy Wyatt, Motorola Mobility senior vice president, and chief strategy officer John Bucher, one person said. Woodside took over as president of the Americas region in 2009 when Tim Armstrong left Google to become CEO of AOL. Since joining Google in 2003, Woodside had served as vice president in charge of the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He also set up direct-sales operations in Eastern Europe. Before that, he worked at McKinsey & Co. Google has received clearance from US and EU regulators for the takeover, but is still awaiting approval in China.
