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I think the answer to your question is they paid Andy not to compete with them. If they fire him and didn’t pay him a dime, he could walk into Samsung or Apple

• HillaryBriss 8y ago
  And yet, ultimately, Rubin went out and started his own hardware company (Essential Phone) and it didn't work out well. Maybe Rubin's domain knowledge wasn't really much of a threat after all. In hindsight, one might argue that Android's success hasn't depended on Android quality/innovation nearly as much as it depended on Google's already powerful position in the search market.
  • rlucas 8y ago
    Although I'm not taking a position on whether the numbers are correctly reasoned, I think evaluating the value of the noncompete after the fact and as a static value (was his domain knowledge worth $90 M) isn't likely how it was thought about. It was probably looked at as insurance against a catastrophic tail risk, the existential threat to the whole Android ecosystem. It might have only been a 10% chance that he could have blown up Android by going to a competitor, but insuring against a 10% chance of multi-$B loss was worth $90 M (for example).
• samstave 8y ago
  I'd argue that they paid him to STFU and not drag anyone else into tis with any of the things he knows or has seen them also do...
• fjsolwmv 8y ago
  Rubin launched a smartphone company immediately after leaving Google.