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(Update: Confirmed via email) Kirt McMaster is no longer the CEO of Cyanogen
July 02, 2025
The reason for the change in roles seems to be that Cyanogen Inc is no longer focused on selling its custom operating system, but is instead moving to a new “modular” strategy to help the company reach its target of over a hundred millions consumers. The company is dubbing this new approach “Cyanogen Now”. As for Kirt, he will now be spending more time working on external rather than internal business factors, such as product strategy, recruiting, and working with strategic partners.
It’s a rather lengthy email, but I’ll leave it here for your reading pleasure.
So, anyone thought of some good jokes?
Original, Oct 10 5:51 –
Kirt McMaster, the outspoken Cyanogen chief executive whosaid last year that his company was “putting a bulletthrough Google’s head,” appears to have left his role as CEO of the company.
McMaster’s LinkedIn profileshows he has dropped his CEO title at Cyanogen Inc. and changed it to Executive Chairman. However, Cyanogen has not yet updated its website to reflect the supposed change in organizational structure.Android Policefirstreportedon the move. The company has yet to release an official statement to shed light on McMaster’s rather low-profile move.
There’s no clear description of what McMaster’s new role entails, but an executive chairman is typically responsible for setting a company’s agenda and overseeing investor relations, among other responsibilities. That is likely to mean that McMaster will no longer have a hand in Cyanogen’s product strategy and daily operations going forward. At this moment, it’s not also clear who would take over the role of CEO.
Cyanogen was founded in September 2013 by Steve Kondik (creator of the open-source CyanogenMod custom ROM) and Kirt McMaster. The company sought to speed up the development of its OS platform for smartphones, called Cyanogen OS, afterreceiving $80 million in fundingfrom bigwig investors like Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, and Telefónica Ventures in March 2015.
However, more than a year later, Cyanogen’s business seemed to have failed to take off significantly, putting McMaster’s vision of a Google-less Android in limbo. In August of this year,Cyanogen’s reported usage number was clouded with doubtsafter an investigation concluded that it was exaggerated. Then in September, a comment from Cyanogen CTO and co-founderSteve Kondik suggestedthat the company was drifting away from OS development, though his statement was hardly an official statement.
Will McMaster’s supposed resignation be able to drive a major turnaround in Cyanogen’s fate?
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