Larry Page to replace Eric Schmidt as Google CEO

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Google's chief executive and former member of Apple's board Eric Schmidt is stepping down to a new position as executive chairman as cofounder Larry Page takes over as the search giant's CEO.



Page's cofounder Sergey Brin will also take a more active role in strategic projects including product development. The company announced the management shakeups in its quarterly earnings report. They will become effective on April 4, 2011.



As executive chairman, Schmidt will handle "deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership."



In a blog posting, Schmidt wrote, "as Google has grown, managing the business has become more complicated," noting that Google recognized a need to "speed up decision making."



Schmidt explained that, "for the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there?s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company."



Schmidt at Apple



Schmidt joined Apple's board in August of 2006, just as the company was completing the design of the iPhone. "Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire," he said at the time. "I'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple?s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing."



Google's own internal smartphone software project, which had been developing since its 2005 acquisition of the Android startup launched by former Danger executives, quickly shifted from an effort to clone the functionality and design of existing BlackBerry, Palm Treo and Windows Mobile devices (as was clear from prototypes floated in 2006 and 2007) into being a copy of Apple's distinct iPhone design and user interface (as began in 2008 with the HTC T-Mobile G1, as depicted in the timeline below).



By mid 2008, it was revealed that Schmidt was being "occasionally excused" from board meetings when the subject began to focus on the strategic direction of Apple's iPhone.



In August of 2009, Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs announced that Schmidt would step down from Apple's board, saying, "Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful.



"Unfortunately," Jobs added, "as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple's Board."







Jobs vs Schmidt



A New York Times report from March 2010 described Jobs as feeling "betrayed" by Google's intent to clone the iPhone, and that Google had "violated the alliance" the two shared in developing services that worked on the iPad, including Google's search, Maps, YouTube and other features Apple had incorporated into its custom client iOS apps on the device.



The report stated that Google founders Brin and Page considered Jobs a mentor, and were regular visitors to the company's Cupertino campus. While the relationship between Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt was said to be pleasant, the two were reportedly "never close friends." At the same time, Jobs and Schmidt were also observed getting coffee together, suggesting that the split between Apple and Google was more of a business matter than a personal issue.



"We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business," Jobs reportedly told employees at a company meeting from February of last year. "Make no mistake; Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won't let them."



Jobs outlined a variety of software and hardware initiatives to prevent Google from killing the iPhone, which culminated in the release of iPhone 4. Since its release, Verizon has reportedly experienced a drop in Android growth, and has since partnered with Apple to sell a CDMA version of iPhone 4, a move that was widely thought to be impossible just a year prior, when Verizon was advertising its Droid lineup as "manly" and depicted the iPhone as effeminate and flawed in its adverting.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 114
    Anyone have a picture of Nelson from the simpsons?

    HaHa!
  • Reply 2 of 114
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Seems to be a day of CEO's eh?
  • Reply 3 of 114
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Did Schmidt overstep his bounds enough recently that Larry and Sergey looked for a way to reign him in while saving face and making it look like a good thing?



    Or is Larry the one pushing the recent antagonistic bent and this means gloves-off-no-filters-anymore time? And Schmidt is getting his sweetheart deal for getting them set up?



    We should know over the next few weeks.
  • Reply 4 of 114
    shadashshadash Posts: 470member
    Any speculation as to what this means for Android, Apple, etc.?
  • Reply 5 of 114
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    One creepy dude takes over from another creepy dude.



    Cool!
  • Reply 6 of 114
    Trying to be more like Apple with a founder at CEO.
  • Reply 7 of 114
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Larry Page Replaces Eric Shmidt as CEO of Google (SpamSandwich)

    Eric Schmidt steps down as Google CEO, stays on as Executive Chairman (John.B)



    My original question still stands:



    Does Larry get to be the creepy spy-on-our-users guy now?
  • Reply 8 of 114
    tjwtjw Posts: 216member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by freddych View Post


    Trying to be more like Apple with a founder at CEO.



    Apart from apple doesn't consistently have a founder CEO
  • Reply 9 of 114
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hiro View Post


    Did Schmidt overstep his bounds enough recently that Larry and Sergey looked for a way to reign him in while saving face and making it look like a good thing?



    Or is Larry the one pushing the recent antagonistic bent and this means gloves-off-no-filters-anymore time? And Schmidt is getting his sweetheart deal for getting them set up?



    We should know over the next few weeks.



    Honestly, I thought this was more of a "Schmidt runs Google until one of the founders matures enough to take over the reigns" kind of thing. Failing that it seems that Schmidt overstepped his bounds to a degree that Larry had to step in anyway.
  • Reply 10 of 114
    Hopefully WebM will now go away.
  • Reply 11 of 114
    Google is an out of control mess. What their business reason for acquiring Sketchup, Picasa, YouTube, etc. is has not been explained nor does it make sense. This whole business of having a Chrome OS then not having a Chrome OS and taking Android from phones and scaling it up to tablets shows that the organization suffers from lack of vision and confusion.



    No one mentions the real elephant in the room: Google searches are getting more and more irrelevant. Sure, they currently have a stranglehold on mindshare, but the quality of search results has plummeted so much over the years that there is a big opportunity for a competitor to eat their lunch. Some deep-pocketed folks have learned to game the super-secret PageRank scheme, so our access to good information is getting choked off unless we plow through the barely relevant hits leading to major corporations to get to the good stuff.



    Google is poised to be where Microsoft was around 2000.



    Larry Page as CEO is a joke. Steve Jobs is sui generis and not every inventive genius is automatically CEO material. I think Steve's genius and major value to Apple is not only in what he chooses for Apple to do, but what he chooses NOT to do. For example, opting out of Blu-ray when it was the darling of tech now looks brilliant considering that owning physical media is falling out of favor. There are few with his vision. Page is not in that tiny number.
  • Reply 12 of 114
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by msantti View Post


    One creepy dude takes over from another creepy dude.



    Cool!



    You mean like this?







    Seriously, these fanboys who are criticizing just because it's Google is hilarious. Maybe you should actually see what this person will do.
  • Reply 13 of 114
    first order of business for new CEO, go out and buy a black mock turtle neck, loafers, and blue jean.
  • Reply 14 of 114
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mickeymantle View Post


    first order of business for new CEO, go out and buy a black mock turtle neck, loafers, and blue jean.



    Doesn't Larry drive a Prius?



    Doesn't that automatically make him cooler than a CEO who drives a Benz with no plates?
  • Reply 15 of 114
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by HahaHaha321 View Post


    Seriously, these fanboys who are criticizing just because it's Google is hilarious. Maybe you should actually see what this person will do.



    No kidding. Critisizing one of the most successfull and inovative tech companies because they are not Apple? Seriously? Yes they havge failures, because they are not afraid to take risks, and they are not afraid to admit to mistakes and learn from them. They seem to be doing just fine these days in search, hosted apps, and android.
  • Reply 16 of 114
    He looked pissed..



    So should I feel less violated when I use Google search now that Larry is back as CEO?



    Oh wait I take it back. If Brin took over as CEO then I would feel less concerned with my online privacy. He's always been known as the "moral conscience" of Google. Kind of..
  • Reply 17 of 114
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AIaddict View Post


    No kidding. Critisizing one of the most successfull and inovative tech companies because they are not Apple? Seriously? Yes they havge failures, because they are not afraid to take risks, and they are not afraid to admit to mistakes and learn from them. They seem to be doing just fine these days in search, hosted apps, and android.



    Exactly. Even Apple clearly recognizes them as a threat. The iPhone would not be on Verizon if it were not for Google, among other things.
  • Reply 18 of 114
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by John.B View Post


    ... Doesn't that automatically make him cooler than a CEO who drives a Benz with no plates?



    Actually, being the only guy in your entire state to not have to put licence plates on your car, pretty much puts you permanently at the top of the cool list in terms of "car cool." I can't think of any make or model of car that would make you look cooler.
  • Reply 19 of 114
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    Actually, being the only guy in your entire state to not have to put licence plates on your car, pretty much puts you permanently at the top of the cool list in terms of "car cool."



    Well said. Who else could pull that off?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    I can't think of any make or model of car that would make you look cooler.



    Tesla?



  • Reply 20 of 114
    If not Google than Palm. If not Palm, then Microsoft. It was bound to happen. iPhone became the shape of smart phones to come. Even Ballmer, who famously chortled that he wasn't blown away by the iPhone in 2007, has to admit that now.
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