Home
Mobiles
Mobiles News
Steve Kondik Finally Speaks on Cyanogen's Failure; Company Breaks Ties With Him

Steve Kondik Finally Speaks on Cyanogen's Failure; Company Breaks Ties With Him

By Ketan Pratap | Updated: 1 December 2016 19:56 IST

Highlights

Cyanogen separates ties with co-founder Steve Kondik
Steve separately blames Kirt McMaster for Cyanogen's failure
Cyanogen now working out of Palo Alto

Things aren't going well for Cyanogen. The latest - soon after Steve Kondik went public with the current situation at Cyanogen, the company has "separated ties" with him. To recall, a recent report had pointed that the future of Steve Kondik, Cyanogen's Co-Founder and former CTO, in the company was unknown.

Kondik took to the official CyanogenMod developer Google+ community recently where he voiced what he thought were the reasons behind Cyanogen's plight and blamed Kirt McMaster, Cyanogen's Co-Founder.

"I've been pretty quiet about the stuff that's been going on but I'm at least ready to tell the short version and hopefully get some input on what to do next because CM is very much affected," wrote Kondik in a private Google+ community first reported by Android Police.

According to Kondik's version, Cyanogen's turmoil is way far from being over. He claimed that Cyanogen had seen success thanks to the efforts by the community and the company. Though, this also changed how the company worked.

Explaining how it all started to come down, Kondik wrote, "Unfortunately once we started to see success, my co-founder apparently became unhappy with running the business and not owning the vision. This is when the "bullet to the head" and other misguided media nonsense started, and the bad business deals were signed. Being second in command, all I could do was try and stop it, do damage control, and hope every day that something new didn't happen. The worst of it happened internally and it became a generally shitty place to work because of all the conflict. I think the backlash from those initial missteps convinced him that what we had needed to be destroyed. By the time I was able to stop it, I was outgunned and outnumbered by a team on the same mission."

Kondik also seemingly confirmed a report from July which claimed Cyanogen may pivot to apps. He further wrote, "Eventually I tried to salvage it with a pivot that would have brought us closer to something that would have worked, but the new guys had other plans. With plenty of cash in the bank, the new guys tore the place down and will go and do whatever they are going to do. It's probably for the best and I wish them luck, but what I was trying to do, is over."

The company's new CEO Lior Tal, former COO, has in a blog post announced that Cyanogen has separated ties with Steve Kondik. The blog post notes, "Cyanogen has separated ties with Steve Kondik, allowing him to continue to forge his path as he sees fit. We wish him the best of luck in his next venture." The blog post also confirmed that Cyanogen has shifted to Palo Alto.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Android, Cyanogen, Cyanogen OS, CyanogenMod, Mobiles

Ketan Pratap

Email Ketan

Ketan Pratap is the editor at Gadgets 360 - with over 12 years of experience covering the technology domain. With a breadth and depth of knowledge in the field, he's done extensive work across news, features, reviews, and opinion pieces. But what's truly inspiring about Ketan is how he spends his free time. He's often found gazing at snow-capped mountains from over 20,000 feet while sitting on the hood of his car, taking in the breathtaking beauty of nature. His passion for the great ...More