5 ms·

Kudos to Larry for recognizing it was time to do the right thing and remove Tony. In this day and age, that sort of courage is pretty rare. Do no evil indeed.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
danudey 10y ago
Arguably, the time to do the right thing was years ago, when Tony was abusing his employees and Nest was making no money other than what Dropcam was making (meaning that buying Dropcam instead of Nest would have made vastly more sense).
- yuhong 10y ago
  I wrote https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11425718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11425718
- outside1234 10y ago
  Yes, but hindsight is 20/20. The only decisions you can make are the ones in front of you - and Larry made the right one here.
- DannyBee 10y ago
  This may have been impossible depending on his contract. It's worth pointing out this is two years and three months after nest was acquired.
- jeffbush 10y ago
  Companies don't usually buy early stage companies based on their current revenue (which was a drop in the bucket compared to Google's total revenue), but the long term vision and leadership team. Regardless of what eventually happened, at the time Google purchased Nest, Tony was a seasoned executive who had lead a large division and many highly successful products at Apple.
draw_down 10y ago
Nobody knows what actually happened here, and even if he was asked to leave it's very strange to call that "courage". I don't even know what the last sentence is supposed to mean.
vegabond83 10y ago
i was there when Marwan was at Motorola Mobility(Home). He is no leader. He never tried to understand any product or road map. He had no vision. His monthly townhall had generic corporate BS filled presentations with no real meaning. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only, to sell the division. He was Larry's go to guy to get rid of things. Looking from far away and from previous experience, it seems like Google has decided move into a different direction. They want to get rid of NEST. If anyone is expecting Marwan to be the leader and build NEST business, then you couldn't be further from the truth.
- daveguy 10y ago
  Interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if they want to get rid of nest given the recent negative publicity from the former CEO all the way down to the product causing google employees to post negative reviews and update policies causing backlash. This is one of their big AI-driven products. I would be surprised if this is part of a larger AI draw down -- that deep learning wasn't up for this type of task. I would also be a little surprised that they would get rid of an "AI enhanced" product given their recent push towards AI.
ajsharp 10y ago
That seems like a low standard for courage. Larry Page is the CEO of Google (Alphabet). He can fire pretty much anyone he wants, including (and especially) the CEO of a company he acquired. Firing an asshole seems like the reasonable thing to do, not courageous. But let's be real for a moment -- the guy was probably not fired because he's a prick. Who knows the reason, but ultimately Alphabet is a public company that demands results (and returns) from assets (companies) it invests in (acquires). My hunch is that Nest (and/or it's subsidiaries) were not delivering, and the CEO is ultimately responsible. It probably didn't help that the guy is an asshole, but let's not pretend that Larry Page walked through the Nest offices like a white knight, sensed a "negative energy", interviewed the sad-looking office manager, and determined the CEO was "damaging to company morale" and therefore MUST be replaced. Page is the CEO of the one of the largest and most important publicly traded companies in the world. He has a legal and fiduciary responsibility to do right by shareholders. If the Nest CEO was putting up numbers, he'd still have a job, period, asshole or saint.
- onesun 10y ago
  There are plenty of other fire-able offenses that even CEO's aren't immune to. Being an asshole isn't one, but you can't just say that if he was performing well, he'd never be fired.
  - tmptmp 10y ago
    >>but you can't just say that if he was performing well, he'd never be fired. In that case (Tony being fired despite performing well), Larry (the firing knight/king) would be an asshole.
    - tempestn 10y ago
      If he was performing well in terms of "putting up numbers", but treating his (and Larry's) employees terribly to do it, firing him would still in my opinion be the right move, and would certainly not make Larry an asshole.
      - 10y ago
sidcool 10y ago
Are there any solid indicators that Fadell was asked to leave? He'll still be working with Alphabet.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

danudey 10y ago

Arguably, the time to do the right thing was years ago, when Tony was abusing his employees and Nest was making no money other than what Dropcam was making (meaning that buying Dropcam instead of Nest would have made vastly more sense).

yuhong 10y ago
I wrote https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11425718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11425718
outside1234 10y ago
Yes, but hindsight is 20/20. The only decisions you can make are the ones in front of you - and Larry made the right one here.
DannyBee 10y ago
This may have been impossible depending on his contract. It's worth pointing out this is two years and three months after nest was acquired.
jeffbush 10y ago
Companies don't usually buy early stage companies based on their current revenue (which was a drop in the bucket compared to Google's total revenue), but the long term vision and leadership team. Regardless of what eventually happened, at the time Google purchased Nest, Tony was a seasoned executive who had lead a large division and many highly successful products at Apple.

draw_down 10y ago

Nobody knows what actually happened here, and even if he was asked to leave it's very strange to call that "courage". I don't even know what the last sentence is supposed to mean.

vegabond83 10y ago

i was there when Marwan was at Motorola Mobility(Home). He is no leader. He never tried to understand any product or road map. He had no vision. His monthly townhall had generic corporate BS filled presentations with no real meaning. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only, to sell the division. He was Larry's go to guy to get rid of things. Looking from far away and from previous experience, it seems like Google has decided move into a different direction. They want to get rid of NEST. If anyone is expecting Marwan to be the leader and build NEST business, then you couldn't be further from the truth.

daveguy 10y ago
Interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if they want to get rid of nest given the recent negative publicity from the former CEO all the way down to the product causing google employees to post negative reviews and update policies causing backlash. This is one of their big AI-driven products. I would be surprised if this is part of a larger AI draw down -- that deep learning wasn't up for this type of task. I would also be a little surprised that they would get rid of an "AI enhanced" product given their recent push towards AI.

ajsharp 10y ago

That seems like a low standard for courage. Larry Page is the CEO of Google (Alphabet). He can fire pretty much anyone he wants, including (and especially) the CEO of a company he acquired. Firing an asshole seems like the reasonable thing to do, not courageous. But let's be real for a moment -- the guy was probably not fired because he's a prick. Who knows the reason, but ultimately Alphabet is a public company that demands results (and returns) from assets (companies) it invests in (acquires). My hunch is that Nest (and/or it's subsidiaries) were not delivering, and the CEO is ultimately responsible. It probably didn't help that the guy is an asshole, but let's not pretend that Larry Page walked through the Nest offices like a white knight, sensed a "negative energy", interviewed the sad-looking office manager, and determined the CEO was "damaging to company morale" and therefore MUST be replaced. Page is the CEO of the one of the largest and most important publicly traded companies in the world. He has a legal and fiduciary responsibility to do right by shareholders. If the Nest CEO was putting up numbers, he'd still have a job, period, asshole or saint.

onesun 10y ago
There are plenty of other fire-able offenses that even CEO's aren't immune to. Being an asshole isn't one, but you can't just say that if he was performing well, he'd never be fired.
- tmptmp 10y ago
  >>but you can't just say that if he was performing well, he'd never be fired. In that case (Tony being fired despite performing well), Larry (the firing knight/king) would be an asshole.
  - tempestn 10y ago
    If he was performing well in terms of "putting up numbers", but treating his (and Larry's) employees terribly to do it, firing him would still in my opinion be the right move, and would certainly not make Larry an asshole.
    - 10y ago

sidcool 10y ago

Are there any solid indicators that Fadell was asked to leave? He'll still be working with Alphabet.