6 ms·

Investors are seeing this as a non-event. He's still going to be around, just a much more limited capacity. More interesting is who they decide to appoint.

notatoad 9y ago
Who they decide to appoint will only be interesting if they appoint somebody interesting, which seems unlikely. Larry Page is still running the show, and moving from an executive chairman to a non-executive chairman will probably only mean that the board has less power than they did before. Odds are they appoint somebody politically well-connected, and that person then gets to use the "chairman of the board at alphabet" title to lobby various governments in Google's favour, rather than they appoint somebody who is going to do any serious oversight of alphabet's executives.
- georgeglue1 9y ago
  Interesting. Obama could be a good bet if he would take the job. (Perhaps the departure was predicated on Obama agreeing in advance)
  - maxpupmax 9y ago
    Honest question: Why would Obama be a good bet? Or is this comment a joke?
    - georgeglue1 9y ago
      Obama could personally call any world leader and talk about taxes, privacy, regulation, etc. with authority. He would also be generally pragmatic, likable, and qualified.
      - andrew_ 9y ago
        Objectively speaking, he would generally be considered likable by about 47.9 [1] of the voting public. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the vast majority of employees of either Alphabet or Google would agree with your assessment, and indeed likely most in the tech sector. But I'm not sure any polarizing figure would be a good fit outside of those niches. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_approval_rating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_app...
        r00fus 9y ago
        47.9% (on average) approval rating by Americans for his job as President (and consequently positions his cabinet, Congress and his party took). It's a barometer of how Americans feel about the USG, too. If you polled him right now across worldwide audience about his stature, it would probably be north of 70%.
    - notatoad 9y ago
      I think it's highly unlikely. They need to find somebody whose stature would be increased by becoming the chairman of alphabet in about the same proportion as the prestige Alphabet would gain by having that person as their chair. Obama as their chairman would be a huge win for Google, but I feel like he probably has better things to do. As a former president, being tied to Google would only hinder him in lobbying goverments for whatever he chooses to lobby for.
  - memracom 9y ago
    If that happened I would get rid of all my Android devices and buy Apple ones to replace them. I would uninstall Chrome and use Firefox instead. Etc., etc., etc. Obama is a nincompoop that has no place in the high tech industry. Google needs a new leader not a sleazebag. At least Schmidt had a history in technology business.
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  - notyourday 9y ago
    If Google offers job to Obama you may as well short Google.

notatoad 9y ago

Who they decide to appoint will only be interesting if they appoint somebody interesting, which seems unlikely. Larry Page is still running the show, and moving from an executive chairman to a non-executive chairman will probably only mean that the board has less power than they did before. Odds are they appoint somebody politically well-connected, and that person then gets to use the "chairman of the board at alphabet" title to lobby various governments in Google's favour, rather than they appoint somebody who is going to do any serious oversight of alphabet's executives.

georgeglue1 9y ago
Interesting. Obama could be a good bet if he would take the job. (Perhaps the departure was predicated on Obama agreeing in advance)
- maxpupmax 9y ago
  Honest question: Why would Obama be a good bet? Or is this comment a joke?
  - georgeglue1 9y ago
    Obama could personally call any world leader and talk about taxes, privacy, regulation, etc. with authority. He would also be generally pragmatic, likable, and qualified.
    - andrew_ 9y ago
      Objectively speaking, he would generally be considered likable by about 47.9 [1] of the voting public. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the vast majority of employees of either Alphabet or Google would agree with your assessment, and indeed likely most in the tech sector. But I'm not sure any polarizing figure would be a good fit outside of those niches. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_approval_rating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_app...
      - r00fus 9y ago
        47.9% (on average) approval rating by Americans for his job as President (and consequently positions his cabinet, Congress and his party took). It's a barometer of how Americans feel about the USG, too. If you polled him right now across worldwide audience about his stature, it would probably be north of 70%.
  - notatoad 9y ago
    I think it's highly unlikely. They need to find somebody whose stature would be increased by becoming the chairman of alphabet in about the same proportion as the prestige Alphabet would gain by having that person as their chair. Obama as their chairman would be a huge win for Google, but I feel like he probably has better things to do. As a former president, being tied to Google would only hinder him in lobbying goverments for whatever he chooses to lobby for.
- memracom 9y ago
  If that happened I would get rid of all my Android devices and buy Apple ones to replace them. I would uninstall Chrome and use Firefox instead. Etc., etc., etc. Obama is a nincompoop that has no place in the high tech industry. Google needs a new leader not a sleazebag. At least Schmidt had a history in technology business.
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- notyourday 9y ago
  If Google offers job to Obama you may as well short Google.