Late last week, Nest co-founder, design guru and alleged tyrant CEO Tony Fadell announced his departure, amidst a very long-running public airing of his conflicts with former employees, including the founder of webcam acquisition Dropcam.

Besides the personal and personnel problems, Fadell has reportedly been chafing under financial restrictions from Nest’s newly reorganized parent company, Alphabet (aka Google), which apparently wants its $3.2 billion acquisition to start making more money, or stop spending as much.

What does this all mean for Nest’s future in energy efficiency and distributed energy?

That will depend, first, on whether Nest’s new management can create a connected home business strategy that can break open a still-tiny market; and second, whether new CEO Marwan Fawaz decides that energy deserves more attention than Nest has generally given it to date.

Read the full story. (Greentech Media)