Cyanogen Inc. co-founder Steve Kondik posted an indictment of ex-CEO Kirt McMaster’s leadership in the private CyanogenMod developer community on Google+, according to a new report by Android Police‘s David Ruddock.
The post follows leaked news that Cyanogen Inc. is planning to close its Seattle office, and has laid off further employees from its Palo Alto office. In his message, Kondik places the blame for the company’s current situation squarely on McMaster, who stepped down from his post last month, handing over the position to Lior Tal. Below is an excerpt of the message, which makes mention of McMaster’s infamous comment to Forbes that Cyanogen was “putting a bullet through Google’s head.”
My co-founder [McMaster] 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.
Kondik went on to state that while Cyanogen may continue — perhaps focusing on apps — it no longer adheres to his vision for the OS.
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. Boo hoo, right? I fucked up and got fucked over. It’s the Silicon Valley way isn’t it? First world problems in the extreme? It hurts, a lot. I lost a lot of friends, and I’m truely [sic] sorry to everyone I let down. I wish I had made different choices and trusted different people (especially one in particularly early on), but all I care about now is figuring out what to do next.
In the comments of the post, Kondik said he’d like to reorganize the non-commercialized CyanogenMod open-source movement, suggesting a non-profit structure could be the best way to organize such a community.
Related: Cyanogen OS is reportedly laying off more employees, planning to shutter Seattle office
[source]Android Police[/source]
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
