Friends who are living in climates familiar with single-digit and subzero temperatures for several months in the year literally call the Google Nest home automation thermostat the best thing since sliced bread. When they take a trip they can monitor and change the home's temperature from an Internet-connected smartphone to ensure that the water pipes don't freeze. 

When Google acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014, the company wanted Tony Fadell, head of Alphabet's Nest Labs unit, to oversee and build an Internet-connected business based on consumer hardware, where the recently announced Home and virtual assistant would become the hub and Android the operating system. But things didn't work out that way.

Late Friday, word broke that Fadell will leave Nest and during the weekend, media reports began to explain why. "Although this news may feel sudden to some, this transition has been in progress since late last year," he wrote in a blog post. "While I won’t be present day to day at Nest, I’ll remain involved in my new capacity as an adviser to Alphabet and Larry Page."

Fadell wrote in the post that this will give him the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries -- and to support others who want to do the same -- just as he did at Nest, and prior to that, Apple. "We should all be disrupters!" he wrote.

In a four-minute read on the blog site Medium, Randy Komisa, general partners at KPCB, lays out Fadell's accomplishments in what reads like a cross between an awards acceptance speech and a eulogy. 

Komisa writes that At Apple, Fadell shipped 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone -- all on budget and on time.

In the past year under Fadell's guidance, Nest shipped four different products, two services and five major app releases -- all on budget and on time, per Komisa.

Amidst the turmoil, Seeking Alpha reports that Nest could even go back on the acquisition block -- which, based on feedback from actual customers, I think would become a huge mistake for Alphabet and Google.