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Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

679 points by andre3k1 16y ago

ry0ohki 16y ago
I just can't picture Larry as CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, I'm frankly surprised he'd want this!
- rpetrov 16y ago
  Me neither. He's obviously amazingly talented, however, he has always struck me as shy/inarticulate/"slow" Watch this talk he gave a couple years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc Doesn't strike me as CEO material, especially for a company like Google.
  - anigbrowl 16y ago
    He doesn't come across to me that way, but I see what you're getting at. He's not overtly charismatic or a gifted orator, but he has so much substance that he can demand the patience and consideration of his listeners - and I think this gives him important leverage in conversations with financial analysts on earnings calls, and suchlike. In recent years the concept of leadership seems to have become constricted into a narrow spectrum with motivational speakers at one end and General Patton at the other. Good link in other respects too: an insightful look into his priorities, motivations, and thinking patterns. The insight and ideas that he inherited from his father are particularly interesting, and worthwhile. While visions of a better world over the long term have to be tempered by present promises to shareholders, I think it's important to be able to articulate the purpose and goals of a firm beyond simply maximizing quarterly growth. On a related note, here's a 2001 Charlie Rose interview where Larry Page & Sergey Brin discuss what it's like to run a search engine that handles 100m queries per day, and more importantly why they had just brought Eric Schmidt on board. http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/3017 http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/3017
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- pyre 16y ago
  You may be getting your Larrys mixed up (Page vs Ellison).
  - jonursenbach 16y ago
    No, he's just trolling.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - curtisspope 16y ago
      then why is he selling stock today then? please upvote me with the same aggressiveness you downvoted me with. thanks. He may not be going to Oracle "today", but in the next year you will see.
- coderdude 16y ago
  -.63 avg karma. Impressive.
  - lanstein 16y ago
    Especially considering he has 52 karma points!
    - boredguy8 16y ago
      The average includes (I think) your last 50 posts. Your karma is life-long.
      - stretchwithme 16y ago
        is that average for discussion posts only? if so, you can submit without affecting the average as well
toisanji 16y ago
I wonder how much of this is due to some of the bad decisions Eric Schmidt has made with google.
- thedjpetersen 16y ago
  He wasn't fired, his role is just changing
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      Edit: parent post suggested that Eric had been demoted. Executive Chairman is technically higher than the CEO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman The Board of Directors is the CEO's boss, the Chairman is the leader of the Board of Directors.
      - ghshephard 16y ago
        The executive chairman is not part of the corporate leadership. In the United States, the CEO is the singular head of the corporate, accountable to only the majority vote of the board. The Executive Chairman position is quite often, a polite way of keeping someone associated with a company (and all the travel, influence perks) without putting them in the management chain. Quite often seen during (friendly) mergers and takeovers. Nobody is confused as to what the responsibilities, and authority Larry and Eric will have after April 4th.
        nostrademons 16y ago
        Hence the "technically".
- mdwrigh2 16y ago
  What decisions made by Eric Schmidt would you consider "bad"?
bluegene 16y ago
Leaders of the two major players, Apple and Google, are taking a back seat now at the same time. It'll be an interesting watch from here
- brudgers 16y ago
  The difference is that Google will be run by a founder (again). That's not the case with Apple, where no matter how its spun, Jobs leave is generally perceived as a negative. Given the way the Apple announcement was handled, it would not surprise me if their timing was in part to steal Google's thunder.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    That gives me a great idea. Woz for CEO!
    - ori_b 16y ago
      I doubt that Woz will be interested in that.
    - yannickt 16y ago
      Woz would be terrible as a CEO.
      - brudgers 16y ago
        Maybe Ron Wayne is available. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/ron-wayne-apples-lost-fou_n_625657.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/ron-wayne-apples-lo...
dusing 16y ago
Seems like Larry is done with CEO school, and ready to lead his company. It would have been hard to get this far without Eric Schmidt
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Who knows where they might have been, it could even have been better.
  - bl4k 16y ago
    They probably would have never made a dollar, but it would have been awesome (btw, Larry and Sergey bought Android without telling Eric, to give you an idea of what could have been)
    - maxawaytoolong 16y ago
      That's pretty interesting. Do you have a cite? Android (the company) was essentially designed as something to sell to Google. I wonder if the guys at Android bypassed Schmidt because they knew he'd be a tougher sell.
      - bl4k 16y ago
        He said it during a press event in New York. There were ppl live blogging in the room but somehow nobody picked up that part of what he said, but I remember at least one person tweeting it. He said it in passing, while talking about the Google mobile strategy (the summary of what he said was "we sort of fell into this business, nobody really understands it just yet (mobile ads) or how big the opportunity will be") I agree Android was setting itself up for an acquisition, same as what happen with Danger. They were probably aiming for a carrier or large non-Apple manufacturer.
        jemfinch 16y ago
        So there was press, lots of live-blogging witnesses, and what would be an incredibly interesting statement by Eric Schmidt, and you can't find any record of it? I'm sorry, but the most likely theory in this case seems to me to be that you're misremembering things, than somehow a whole room of other people were simultaneously rendered incapable of recording or publishing a very interesting quote from Eric.
moultano 16y ago
From my (very limited) perspective, this seems to be mostly publicly clarifying the roles they were already effectively serving in their ad hoc division of labor for a while. Larry has been the most involved in the technology details, Sergey has been the most involved in the blue-sky new projects, and Eric has been the most involved in the interaction between Google and other entities (as well as very high level direction.)
- powrtoch 16y ago
  Agreed. It seems like it may just be a PR move... Larry doesn't have Eric's growing reputation for slight creepiness. People might like the idea (whether it's true or not) that he's the one making all the calls.
  - leoc 16y ago
    But on the other side of the coin, this makes it a bit harder for Good Czar Larry to hide behind nasty old Eric Schmidt whenever Google does something inept or morally questionable.
    - borism 16y ago
      well maybe that's the point?
      - leoc 16y ago
        I'd like to think so, but it seems very unlikely.
      - mmaunder 16y ago
        I'm reminded of the quote "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.".
        angstrom 16y ago
        Santa Clause?
sdoowpilihp 16y ago
My initial reaction was that this was just another Google April fools joke.
- helium 16y ago
  I think it needs to be the 1st of April for it to be an April fools joke, right?
  - cperciva 16y ago
    For most of us, yes. If Google wants to do an April fools joke on April 4th, all they need to do is edit the index so that the top result returned for "April fools date" claims that April fools' day is April 4th.
    - BrandonM 16y ago
      That would actually be a great April Fools' Day joke for Google, to change a few obscure indexes, especially one related to April Fools'.
  - sdoowpilihp 16y ago
    I think initial reactions are rarely subject to sound logic.
- pjscott 16y ago
  They do have a tradition of making hard-to-believe announcements on April 1. Like the ridiculous announcement that they were starting a free email service that would give everybody a 1 GB storage quota.
siglesias 16y ago
Tried and true: founders make terrific CEOs. EDIT, Context being tech: Hastings, Ellison, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates. I'd say Google was a company in the spirit of these before WorldCom, Enron and Countrywide Financial.
- jonknee 16y ago
  Except when they don't... Angelo Mozilo, Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay (among many others) come to mind.
  - siglesias 16y ago
    Bravo on conjuring a list of relevant counterexamples. Surely boards on product companies will look to the Enron scandal when assessing whether a founder has the competence or vision to lead a company.
    - jonknee 16y ago
      They are criminally liable to do the due diligence assessments to make sure the books aren't being cooked, so yes I would hope at minimum the board is actively trying to prevent an Enron.
      - siglesias 16y ago
        No, what was pertinent to the discussion was whether vision outweighs direct experience in this industry, which is not entirely obvious. I would say that vision is a trait that is generalizable to technology startup founders. Your counterexamples reference accounting fraud, the proclivity of which is not tied or correlated in a significant way to being a founder. A valid counterexample would reference the need for experience trumping vision in a startup founder's performance as CEO.
        jonknee 16y ago
        Simply put, you said "founders make terrific CEOs". That's just not true. Some do, some don't (because they steal, manage poorly, whatever).
scottkrager 16y ago
I wonder if this has more to do with media relations than anything else. Schmidt had some major media slips & blunders in 2010, it just doesn't seem to be his thing.
jw84 16y ago
Sometimes people switch out from being CEO to being chairman because it's just more fun being the globe-trotting-jet-setting-lunching-with-Obama guy schmoozing and closing deals and partnerships than being the tedious micromanager. Just saying. But it's also fun to fantasize, speculate, and gossip about really rich and important people.
- Tycho 16y ago
  It's the 'problems we'd like to have.'
rottendevice 16y ago
My birthday present!
- ebaysucks 16y ago
  Happy Birthday!
yanw 16y ago
Wow. Back to the original CEO then. Eric is still around and filling an important role (basically doing what he used to mostly do, he just doesn't have to sit in on earnings calls anymore): Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership--all of which are increasingly important given Google's global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
- bootload 16y ago
  "'we’ve only touched one percent of what' social can be within search." Brin was quoted above in the google earnings address, "We’ve Touched 1 Percent Of What Social Search Can Be" ~ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/sergey-brin-weve-touched-1-percent-of-what-social-search-can-be/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/sergey-brin-weve-touched-1-... "... Eric is still around and filling an important role ..." I think this could be a bigger adjustment than you think. Google under Schmidt has not gained ground on social search and in effect dropped the ball. An important lesson running a product on the open Internet. Google with the massive financial and technical lead can loose ground and revenue to competitors.
dirtyaura 16y ago
Great news! I'm definitely a Larry fan, this means that Google will continue do crazy, risky, potentially world-changing projects in the future too.
kloncks 16y ago
Great tweet from Eric Schmidt on the subject: Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed
- easyfrag 16y ago
  I often thought it was Schmidt who needed the supervision, if only when speaking about privacy concerns.
- DanielRibeiro 16y ago
  The link for the tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/ericschmidt/status/28196946376130560 http://twitter.com/#!/ericschmidt/status/28196946376130560 This one was the best satirical one: Larry Page has just ousted Eric Schmidt as Mayor of Google on @foursquare. http://bit.ly/hQGNRe http://bit.ly/hQGNRe Link: http://twitter.com/#!/pourmecoffee/status/28198140209270784 http://twitter.com/#!/pourmecoffee/status/28198140209270784
  - bl4k 16y ago
    A foursquare joke? what is this, 2010?
- saturdaysaint 16y ago
  This tweet brought to mind Sergei and Larry arriving at the unveiling of the G1 in Rollerblades and helmets, grinning like mischievous 12-year-olds only two years ago (they were running late)...
gokhan 16y ago
Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, Sun (CTO), Novell (CEO), Google (CEO)... Quite impressive. As indicated by page 29 of Google's 2004 S-1 Filing Eric Schmidt, Page, and Brin run Google as a triumvirate. Eric Schmidt possesses the legal responsibilities typically assigned to the CEO of a public company and focuses on management of the vice presidents and the sales organization. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt) Google was always a different company. And we should not evaluate this move as if HP's CEO is stepping down, or IBM's etc. After all this time, I believe Larry can make it. Interesting times.
bakbak 16y ago
I guess Google is going to be more focused on PR (and lobbying) and will be way more aggressive than ever before - in simple lingo , they wont take anymore bullshit (from all sort of heavy weight and nasty competitors) and even more than that they will stop them even before they think to do anything against google ... Don't be Evil to Customers and Shareholders !!! But be as Evil as possible if (and Only if) someone tries to screw you !!!
- bakbak 16y ago
  i would appreciate courtesy if you explain your reasoning for downvoting me .... Eric Schmidt now a dedicated resource, he will be strong force for external PR also he will see that no one gets Evil to Google and their vision (which is not to be evil to other) provided everyone plays a fair game ...
barredo 16y ago
Does Eric Schmidt steps down because Larry Page is a more open standard as a CEO?
redstripe 16y ago
No mention if he keeps his role of Chief Dismisser of Privacy Concerns
- haberman 16y ago
  This meme is based on a few isolated and misinterpreted quotations. Let's take an earnings call, where we would expect him to be showing his true colors as someone who purportedly doesn't care about privacy: Q: How does Google think generally about leveraging user data, both to better target ads and how to stay competitive with those like Facebook and Microsoft and Yahoo that are leveraging data possibly more so than what Google is today? And I think this is particularly relevant for using search data for your display business but, would love to get your thoughts on that. Eric Schmidt: "We have a pretty strong opinion that we're not going to do very much of it. The reason is that we take our end-user data privacy incredibly seriously and the trust that people have with respect to giving us that information, both their search histories as well as other pieces of information, they get very upset, very, very quickly if we, in their view, misuse it. "So, what we typically tell people is we're not going to do the kinds of things that you could do with this, in particular use it to generate sort of strange ads against your history and things like that, without your explicit permission. And we probably, in many cases, won't do it forever." --Q3 2010 Earnings Call, October 14, 2010 http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Google-Q3-Earnings-Call-Transcript/41199/281 http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Google-Q3-Earnings-Cal... This kind of quotation doesn't get press, but it's essential if you really want to get a balanced picture of what Eric says about privacy.
  - nocman 16y ago
    "... And we probably, in many cases, won't do it forever." You will have to excuse me for not being terribly excited about the words "probably" and "in many cases". He sounds to me like someone who is saying exactly what he thinks people want him to say, and then throwing in a couple of qualifiers that pretty much leave the company open to doing whatever they decide to do in the future. If someone calls Him on it, well he did say "probably", and "in many cases" Now I don't know Eric Schmidt from Adam, but I did watch the interview where he said "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." (yes, I listened to it in context, the quote is not the only part I heard). While that quote perhaps does not mean all that people have made it out to mean, I still find it deeply disturbing -- especially coming from the (now "former") CEO of a company which is in such a great position to abuse their collected information if they decide to. Yes, perhaps Schmidt was only trying to cover the company's collective rear end for when federal laws require them to disclose information, but if so, He has done an extremely poor job of convincing me (and obviously many others in the world) that such was his intention.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
napierzaza 16y ago
But you still know all my secrets? Or is it Larry Page from now on?
staunch 16y ago
> Sergey['s]....title will be Co-Founder. I can just imagine the conversation. "So, Sergey, you're okay with Larry taking the CEO title, what will yours be?" "You can call me 'Co-Founder', bitch"
- hugh3 16y ago
  If I were Sergey, I'd make sure that my title was just "Sergey".
  - staunch 16y ago
    I just think it's funny that they probably wanted Sergey to pick a standard big company management title for the press release, like "President of Products" or similar. He went with "Co-Founder".
    - hugh3 16y ago
      Any standard big-company management title other than "CEO" or "Chairman of the Board" is beneath CEO level. "Co-founder" makes it clear what his position is: power without any official duties. Pretty sweet deal.
      - staunch 16y ago
        Yeah..that was my point...I'll stop talking about this now :-)
      - bl4k 16y ago
        His first request was "Super Co-Founder"
        dougk7 16y ago
        I love the way Google functions in respect to top management
alexandros 16y ago
I wonder if this was in the plan all along. Schmidt acting as front-man until one of the founders has learned enough and garnered enough respect to credibly take over.
erikstarck 16y ago
Why April 4th? Symmetric date. Hidden meaning? :)
- jtbigwoo 16y ago
  Many companies set their calendars using 13-week quarters. April 4 is the fourteenth Monday of the year.
brown9-2 16y ago
I've always wondered when a change in the "triumvirate" would happen and what impact it would have on public perception of Google, but somehow I also imagined it would be one of the co-founders leaving the company first.
eapen 16y ago
Me thinks Eric Schmidt will replace Steve Jobs (for now) to restore confidence in Apple when Steve steps down.
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  He's not leaving Google, or at least there's no indication that's the case. They're just refocusing on their strengths. Also, why on Earth would Jobs want that? That'd be like grooming Gates to take over for him when Scully fired him. Jobs will find a product guy to take over, and that's not Schmidt.
  - eapen 16y ago
    Schmidt was previously an Apple board member and had to resign due to conflict of interest but he is capable of restoring stockholder confidence once Steve Jobs steps down. He would still have to resign from Google if he took the position (which his current statement doesn't support) but I don't expect an equally capable product guy to replace Steve. Schmidt could also help facilitate strategic relationships between the two companies again.
- philwelch 16y ago
  He's an interesting dark horse candidate, but I don't think they'd pick an outside candidate. Apple's like FC Barcelona--they're so successful doing it their way that it's better to promote from within than to teach an outsider how to do it their way.
  - eapen 16y ago
    Love the comparison to FC Barcelona!
- Keyframe 16y ago
  Interesting speculation, though without basis in information gathered. There's no reason to downvote you though, it is a speculation. It would really be interesting to see Schmidt in that role.
- 16y ago
chollida1 16y ago
Larry becoming CEO sounds like the same path that Bill Gates had. Found a company and become it's CEO. When it's time for the company to "grow up", bring in a well respected CEO who can structure the company for growth and stability while teaching the young founder. When the founder has learned the ropes he takes over again as CEO.
- johns 16y ago
  Gates was CEO from the beginning of Microsoft until he became Chief Software Architect prior to his retirement. Ballmer became CEO after Gates. There was never a gap between founding and CSA where someone else was CEO of MS.
  - chollida1 16y ago
    Hmm how about that, it looks like you are correct:) I though John Shirley was the CEO for most of the 80's:)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
ntoshev 16y ago
I like the image of the self-driving car he chose as an illustration of who drives Google.
coverband 16y ago
I think one of the two founders just wants more face time...
andrewljohnson 16y ago
I bet this means Eric is on his way out. He'll stay on for a year or so, so as not to rattle investors, and then he'll leave the company.
- Devilboy 16y ago
  I doubt it, he's too young to be doing nothing. He'll come to his senses and stay on!
  - Kliment 16y ago
    Given his track record, I highly doubt he'll be "doing nothing" if he leaves.
  - andrewljohnson 16y ago
    After I posted this comment, the New Yorker came out with an article quoting an insider who agrees with me. It's a pretty straightforward thing... happens all the time.
sterling 16y ago
I'm sorry, but this is not "publicly clarifying" anything. This new is huge. My guess at the real reason is this: Google created and continues to dominate the global market for low-priced ads - but it isn't doing enough to retain that dominance by either innovating in search, developing content networks (like Facebook or Amazon) or by taking control of new platforms (which is hard to do).
- cyrus_ 16y ago
  They took control of the Youtube content network. They serve the ads for most of the world's biggest websites, and they have a solid foothold in mobile. I don't think Google is in any trouble. They really just need to make a compelling social product that appeals to the masses, not just tech geeks. I suspect Schmidt dropped the ball on buying Twitter at some point, and Buzz, Wave, etc. were all duds. He's great at selling ads, so they've put him in charge of that while the cofounders work on future product development.
stevenp 16y ago
Hopefully this is not another "Jerry Yang as new CEO of Yahoo!" thing.
dmoney 16y ago
My guess is this is aimed at stopping Google from hemorrhaging engineers in Facebook's general direction. "Look, we've got a programmer in charge again!"
- donaq 16y ago
  Eric Schmidt is a programmer. He was one of the authors of lex.
arrowoftime 16y ago
His Page rank just went from 1 to 1.
dikkat 16y ago
Eric is joining Apple when Steve leaves.
scrame 16y ago
From a programmer nerd, Schmidt has the most enviable resume. The entrepreneurs admire Jobs and Gates, but Schmidt worked his way through Bell labs, PARC, managed the release of Java, was CTO of Sun, CEO of Novell, and brought google from a well executed grad school project to dominate the internet. He turned down a job with the Obama administration to be the governments CTO. He also did all that as an academic, after getting a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He has gotten some bad press doing PR for google recently, but the man has been kicking ass in enviable positions since I was a toddler. After all that, yeah, good on him. Take some time off.
- smikhanov 16y ago
  Absolutely. Would like to add that he has never been a founder, always a hired gun.
  - scrame 16y ago
    Yep, he's on the short list (with Ballmer) of people who are billionaires through stock grants without being co-founders or heirs.
- jason 16y ago
  And coauthored lex.
  - scrame 16y ago
    Yep, surprised I left that out.
lionhearted 16y ago
Most underrated executive of all time? Google's been incredible under his tenure, blown away the wildest projects, and yet Schmidt's press has been kind of neutral to bad... actually, that doubly sucks because it seems like people get upset when he says true-but-uncomfortable things instead of just giving politically correct non-answers. I think as time passes, his reputation's going to grow even more... that was one of the greatest decades of any company ever.
- greyman 16y ago
  Hmm, I feel differently. My basic perception is that under his rule, Google somehow lost its focus and transitioned from the indispensable service to just a product company. Put another way, currently it is easier to live without Google that it was 10 years ago (but to be fair, I can't say if that is due or despite Schmidt's leadership).
  - NickPollard 16y ago
    Isn't Search pretty much the only thing Google was known for before Schmidt's tenure? Everything from Gmail to Android to Chrome to Maps to Self-driving cars has been developed whilst Schmidt was CEO. When Schmidt joined, Google was a search company. A damn good search company, but still just search. Now they're a phenomenally influential technology company, who's products affect billions of lives every day. The fact that they didn't just sit on piles of cash but have used it to revolutionize field after field of endeavour is a striking achievement in diversification.
    - greyman 16y ago
      I agree with what you say, and I also don't want to play down Google's achievement. I just wanted to say that imho currently Google doesn't own any technology that would be truly indispensable - for any of their product, I can use competitor product without losing that much value. Yes, 10 years ago they were "still just search," because that was the indispensable way to navigate the internet, it was a core technology. During the last five years, the focus has shifted so "just search" is not that important anymore, but Google somehow didn't evolve, but instead has been developing new and new products. And while some of them are very good, in the future they all can be replaced by the competition. Google is just not essential for the Internet anymore, or at least that's my feeling.
evolve 16y ago
Despite the cordial collaborative tone of the blog post, it seems the picture, taken today, tells it's own story. Forget for a moment who is who and just consider the picture. There are two dudes in the 'self driving car', sitting in-sync with arms wide open. There is also another guy with crossed arms who is next to, but not in, the 'self driving car'. Can you guess where Eric is in the picture? Review the picture again and make your own conclusions.. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/TTirzCdsGgI/AAAAAAAAHW0/syTLBoNuYJg/s1600/L100288-clean.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/TTirzCdsGgI/AAAAAAAAHW...
gwern 16y ago
Farewell, Eric! As you slowly leave Google with your $5.5 billion, we'll always remember you for... for.... uh, those thingies you did so well.
jgervin 16y ago
Is looking to fill the vacancy at Apple?
slowpoison 16y ago
How much I wanted the date to be 3 days earlier!

679 points by andre3k1 16y ago

I just can't picture Larry as CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, I'm frankly surprised he'd want this!

rpetrov 16y ago
Me neither. He's obviously amazingly talented, however, he has always struck me as shy/inarticulate/"slow" Watch this talk he gave a couple years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc Doesn't strike me as CEO material, especially for a company like Google.
- anigbrowl 16y ago
  He doesn't come across to me that way, but I see what you're getting at. He's not overtly charismatic or a gifted orator, but he has so much substance that he can demand the patience and consideration of his listeners - and I think this gives him important leverage in conversations with financial analysts on earnings calls, and suchlike. In recent years the concept of leadership seems to have become constricted into a narrow spectrum with motivational speakers at one end and General Patton at the other. Good link in other respects too: an insightful look into his priorities, motivations, and thinking patterns. The insight and ideas that he inherited from his father are particularly interesting, and worthwhile. While visions of a better world over the long term have to be tempered by present promises to shareholders, I think it's important to be able to articulate the purpose and goals of a firm beyond simply maximizing quarterly growth. On a related note, here's a 2001 Charlie Rose interview where Larry Page & Sergey Brin discuss what it's like to run a search engine that handles 100m queries per day, and more importantly why they had just brought Eric Schmidt on board. http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/3017 http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/3017

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

pyre 16y ago
You may be getting your Larrys mixed up (Page vs Ellison).
- jonursenbach 16y ago
  No, he's just trolling.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - curtisspope 16y ago
    then why is he selling stock today then? please upvote me with the same aggressiveness you downvoted me with. thanks. He may not be going to Oracle "today", but in the next year you will see.
coderdude 16y ago
-.63 avg karma. Impressive.
- lanstein 16y ago
  Especially considering he has 52 karma points!
  - boredguy8 16y ago
    The average includes (I think) your last 50 posts. Your karma is life-long.
    - stretchwithme 16y ago
      is that average for discussion posts only? if so, you can submit without affecting the average as well

toisanji 16y ago

I wonder how much of this is due to some of the bad decisions Eric Schmidt has made with google.

thedjpetersen 16y ago
He wasn't fired, his role is just changing
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Edit: parent post suggested that Eric had been demoted. Executive Chairman is technically higher than the CEO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman The Board of Directors is the CEO's boss, the Chairman is the leader of the Board of Directors.
    - ghshephard 16y ago
      The executive chairman is not part of the corporate leadership. In the United States, the CEO is the singular head of the corporate, accountable to only the majority vote of the board. The Executive Chairman position is quite often, a polite way of keeping someone associated with a company (and all the travel, influence perks) without putting them in the management chain. Quite often seen during (friendly) mergers and takeovers. Nobody is confused as to what the responsibilities, and authority Larry and Eric will have after April 4th.
      - nostrademons 16y ago
        Hence the "technically".
mdwrigh2 16y ago
What decisions made by Eric Schmidt would you consider "bad"?

bluegene 16y ago

Leaders of the two major players, Apple and Google, are taking a back seat now at the same time. It'll be an interesting watch from here

brudgers 16y ago
The difference is that Google will be run by a founder (again). That's not the case with Apple, where no matter how its spun, Jobs leave is generally perceived as a negative. Given the way the Apple announcement was handled, it would not surprise me if their timing was in part to steal Google's thunder.
- hugh3 16y ago
  That gives me a great idea. Woz for CEO!
  - ori_b 16y ago
    I doubt that Woz will be interested in that.
  - yannickt 16y ago
    Woz would be terrible as a CEO.
    - brudgers 16y ago
      Maybe Ron Wayne is available. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/ron-wayne-apples-lost-fou_n_625657.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/ron-wayne-apples-lo...

dusing 16y ago

Seems like Larry is done with CEO school, and ready to lead his company. It would have been hard to get this far without Eric Schmidt

jacquesm 16y ago
Who knows where they might have been, it could even have been better.
- bl4k 16y ago
  They probably would have never made a dollar, but it would have been awesome (btw, Larry and Sergey bought Android without telling Eric, to give you an idea of what could have been)
  - maxawaytoolong 16y ago
    That's pretty interesting. Do you have a cite? Android (the company) was essentially designed as something to sell to Google. I wonder if the guys at Android bypassed Schmidt because they knew he'd be a tougher sell.
    - bl4k 16y ago
      He said it during a press event in New York. There were ppl live blogging in the room but somehow nobody picked up that part of what he said, but I remember at least one person tweeting it. He said it in passing, while talking about the Google mobile strategy (the summary of what he said was "we sort of fell into this business, nobody really understands it just yet (mobile ads) or how big the opportunity will be") I agree Android was setting itself up for an acquisition, same as what happen with Danger. They were probably aiming for a carrier or large non-Apple manufacturer.
      - jemfinch 16y ago
        So there was press, lots of live-blogging witnesses, and what would be an incredibly interesting statement by Eric Schmidt, and you can't find any record of it? I'm sorry, but the most likely theory in this case seems to me to be that you're misremembering things, than somehow a whole room of other people were simultaneously rendered incapable of recording or publishing a very interesting quote from Eric.

moultano 16y ago

From my (very limited) perspective, this seems to be mostly publicly clarifying the roles they were already effectively serving in their ad hoc division of labor for a while. Larry has been the most involved in the technology details, Sergey has been the most involved in the blue-sky new projects, and Eric has been the most involved in the interaction between Google and other entities (as well as very high level direction.)

powrtoch 16y ago
Agreed. It seems like it may just be a PR move... Larry doesn't have Eric's growing reputation for slight creepiness. People might like the idea (whether it's true or not) that he's the one making all the calls.
- leoc 16y ago
  But on the other side of the coin, this makes it a bit harder for Good Czar Larry to hide behind nasty old Eric Schmidt whenever Google does something inept or morally questionable.
  - borism 16y ago
    well maybe that's the point?
    - leoc 16y ago
      I'd like to think so, but it seems very unlikely.
    - mmaunder 16y ago
      I'm reminded of the quote "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.".
      - angstrom 16y ago
        Santa Clause?

sdoowpilihp 16y ago

My initial reaction was that this was just another Google April fools joke.

helium 16y ago
I think it needs to be the 1st of April for it to be an April fools joke, right?
- cperciva 16y ago
  For most of us, yes. If Google wants to do an April fools joke on April 4th, all they need to do is edit the index so that the top result returned for "April fools date" claims that April fools' day is April 4th.
  - BrandonM 16y ago
    That would actually be a great April Fools' Day joke for Google, to change a few obscure indexes, especially one related to April Fools'.
- sdoowpilihp 16y ago
  I think initial reactions are rarely subject to sound logic.
pjscott 16y ago
They do have a tradition of making hard-to-believe announcements on April 1. Like the ridiculous announcement that they were starting a free email service that would give everybody a 1 GB storage quota.

siglesias 16y ago

Tried and true: founders make terrific CEOs. EDIT, Context being tech: Hastings, Ellison, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates. I'd say Google was a company in the spirit of these before WorldCom, Enron and Countrywide Financial.

jonknee 16y ago
Except when they don't... Angelo Mozilo, Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay (among many others) come to mind.
- siglesias 16y ago
  Bravo on conjuring a list of relevant counterexamples. Surely boards on product companies will look to the Enron scandal when assessing whether a founder has the competence or vision to lead a company.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    They are criminally liable to do the due diligence assessments to make sure the books aren't being cooked, so yes I would hope at minimum the board is actively trying to prevent an Enron.
    - siglesias 16y ago
      No, what was pertinent to the discussion was whether vision outweighs direct experience in this industry, which is not entirely obvious. I would say that vision is a trait that is generalizable to technology startup founders. Your counterexamples reference accounting fraud, the proclivity of which is not tied or correlated in a significant way to being a founder. A valid counterexample would reference the need for experience trumping vision in a startup founder's performance as CEO.
      - jonknee 16y ago
        Simply put, you said "founders make terrific CEOs". That's just not true. Some do, some don't (because they steal, manage poorly, whatever).

scottkrager 16y ago

I wonder if this has more to do with media relations than anything else. Schmidt had some major media slips & blunders in 2010, it just doesn't seem to be his thing.

jw84 16y ago

Sometimes people switch out from being CEO to being chairman because it's just more fun being the globe-trotting-jet-setting-lunching-with-Obama guy schmoozing and closing deals and partnerships than being the tedious micromanager. Just saying. But it's also fun to fantasize, speculate, and gossip about really rich and important people.

Tycho 16y ago
It's the 'problems we'd like to have.'

rottendevice 16y ago

My birthday present!

ebaysucks 16y ago
Happy Birthday!

yanw 16y ago

Wow. Back to the original CEO then. Eric is still around and filling an important role (basically doing what he used to mostly do, he just doesn't have to sit in on earnings calls anymore): Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership--all of which are increasingly important given Google's global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

bootload 16y ago
"'we’ve only touched one percent of what' social can be within search." Brin was quoted above in the google earnings address, "We’ve Touched 1 Percent Of What Social Search Can Be" ~ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/sergey-brin-weve-touched-1-percent-of-what-social-search-can-be/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/sergey-brin-weve-touched-1-... "... Eric is still around and filling an important role ..." I think this could be a bigger adjustment than you think. Google under Schmidt has not gained ground on social search and in effect dropped the ball. An important lesson running a product on the open Internet. Google with the massive financial and technical lead can loose ground and revenue to competitors.

dirtyaura 16y ago

Great news! I'm definitely a Larry fan, this means that Google will continue do crazy, risky, potentially world-changing projects in the future too.

kloncks 16y ago

Great tweet from Eric Schmidt on the subject: Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed

easyfrag 16y ago
I often thought it was Schmidt who needed the supervision, if only when speaking about privacy concerns.
DanielRibeiro 16y ago
The link for the tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/ericschmidt/status/28196946376130560 http://twitter.com/#!/ericschmidt/status/28196946376130560 This one was the best satirical one: Larry Page has just ousted Eric Schmidt as Mayor of Google on @foursquare. http://bit.ly/hQGNRe http://bit.ly/hQGNRe Link: http://twitter.com/#!/pourmecoffee/status/28198140209270784 http://twitter.com/#!/pourmecoffee/status/28198140209270784
- bl4k 16y ago
  A foursquare joke? what is this, 2010?
saturdaysaint 16y ago
This tweet brought to mind Sergei and Larry arriving at the unveiling of the G1 in Rollerblades and helmets, grinning like mischievous 12-year-olds only two years ago (they were running late)...

gokhan 16y ago

Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, Sun (CTO), Novell (CEO), Google (CEO)... Quite impressive. As indicated by page 29 of Google's 2004 S-1 Filing Eric Schmidt, Page, and Brin run Google as a triumvirate. Eric Schmidt possesses the legal responsibilities typically assigned to the CEO of a public company and focuses on management of the vice presidents and the sales organization. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt) Google was always a different company. And we should not evaluate this move as if HP's CEO is stepping down, or IBM's etc. After all this time, I believe Larry can make it. Interesting times.

bakbak 16y ago

I guess Google is going to be more focused on PR (and lobbying) and will be way more aggressive than ever before - in simple lingo , they wont take anymore bullshit (from all sort of heavy weight and nasty competitors) and even more than that they will stop them even before they think to do anything against google ... Don't be Evil to Customers and Shareholders !!! But be as Evil as possible if (and Only if) someone tries to screw you !!!

bakbak 16y ago
i would appreciate courtesy if you explain your reasoning for downvoting me .... Eric Schmidt now a dedicated resource, he will be strong force for external PR also he will see that no one gets Evil to Google and their vision (which is not to be evil to other) provided everyone plays a fair game ...

barredo 16y ago

Does Eric Schmidt steps down because Larry Page is a more open standard as a CEO?

redstripe 16y ago

No mention if he keeps his role of Chief Dismisser of Privacy Concerns

haberman 16y ago
This meme is based on a few isolated and misinterpreted quotations. Let's take an earnings call, where we would expect him to be showing his true colors as someone who purportedly doesn't care about privacy: Q: How does Google think generally about leveraging user data, both to better target ads and how to stay competitive with those like Facebook and Microsoft and Yahoo that are leveraging data possibly more so than what Google is today? And I think this is particularly relevant for using search data for your display business but, would love to get your thoughts on that. Eric Schmidt: "We have a pretty strong opinion that we're not going to do very much of it. The reason is that we take our end-user data privacy incredibly seriously and the trust that people have with respect to giving us that information, both their search histories as well as other pieces of information, they get very upset, very, very quickly if we, in their view, misuse it. "So, what we typically tell people is we're not going to do the kinds of things that you could do with this, in particular use it to generate sort of strange ads against your history and things like that, without your explicit permission. And we probably, in many cases, won't do it forever." --Q3 2010 Earnings Call, October 14, 2010 http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Google-Q3-Earnings-Call-Transcript/41199/281 http://www.123jump.com/earnings-calls/Google-Q3-Earnings-Cal... This kind of quotation doesn't get press, but it's essential if you really want to get a balanced picture of what Eric says about privacy.
- nocman 16y ago
  "... And we probably, in many cases, won't do it forever." You will have to excuse me for not being terribly excited about the words "probably" and "in many cases". He sounds to me like someone who is saying exactly what he thinks people want him to say, and then throwing in a couple of qualifiers that pretty much leave the company open to doing whatever they decide to do in the future. If someone calls Him on it, well he did say "probably", and "in many cases" Now I don't know Eric Schmidt from Adam, but I did watch the interview where he said "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." (yes, I listened to it in context, the quote is not the only part I heard). While that quote perhaps does not mean all that people have made it out to mean, I still find it deeply disturbing -- especially coming from the (now "former") CEO of a company which is in such a great position to abuse their collected information if they decide to. Yes, perhaps Schmidt was only trying to cover the company's collective rear end for when federal laws require them to disclose information, but if so, He has done an extremely poor job of convincing me (and obviously many others in the world) that such was his intention.

deleted 16y ago

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napierzaza 16y ago

But you still know all my secrets? Or is it Larry Page from now on?

staunch 16y ago

> Sergey['s]....title will be Co-Founder. I can just imagine the conversation. "So, Sergey, you're okay with Larry taking the CEO title, what will yours be?" "You can call me 'Co-Founder', bitch"

hugh3 16y ago
If I were Sergey, I'd make sure that my title was just "Sergey".
- staunch 16y ago
  I just think it's funny that they probably wanted Sergey to pick a standard big company management title for the press release, like "President of Products" or similar. He went with "Co-Founder".
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Any standard big-company management title other than "CEO" or "Chairman of the Board" is beneath CEO level. "Co-founder" makes it clear what his position is: power without any official duties. Pretty sweet deal.
    - staunch 16y ago
      Yeah..that was my point...I'll stop talking about this now :-)
    - bl4k 16y ago
      His first request was "Super Co-Founder"
      - dougk7 16y ago
        I love the way Google functions in respect to top management

alexandros 16y ago

I wonder if this was in the plan all along. Schmidt acting as front-man until one of the founders has learned enough and garnered enough respect to credibly take over.

erikstarck 16y ago

Why April 4th? Symmetric date. Hidden meaning? :)

jtbigwoo 16y ago
Many companies set their calendars using 13-week quarters. April 4 is the fourteenth Monday of the year.

brown9-2 16y ago

I've always wondered when a change in the "triumvirate" would happen and what impact it would have on public perception of Google, but somehow I also imagined it would be one of the co-founders leaving the company first.

eapen 16y ago

Me thinks Eric Schmidt will replace Steve Jobs (for now) to restore confidence in Apple when Steve steps down.

redthrowaway 16y ago
He's not leaving Google, or at least there's no indication that's the case. They're just refocusing on their strengths. Also, why on Earth would Jobs want that? That'd be like grooming Gates to take over for him when Scully fired him. Jobs will find a product guy to take over, and that's not Schmidt.
- eapen 16y ago
  Schmidt was previously an Apple board member and had to resign due to conflict of interest but he is capable of restoring stockholder confidence once Steve Jobs steps down. He would still have to resign from Google if he took the position (which his current statement doesn't support) but I don't expect an equally capable product guy to replace Steve. Schmidt could also help facilitate strategic relationships between the two companies again.
philwelch 16y ago
He's an interesting dark horse candidate, but I don't think they'd pick an outside candidate. Apple's like FC Barcelona--they're so successful doing it their way that it's better to promote from within than to teach an outsider how to do it their way.
- eapen 16y ago
  Love the comparison to FC Barcelona!
Keyframe 16y ago
Interesting speculation, though without basis in information gathered. There's no reason to downvote you though, it is a speculation. It would really be interesting to see Schmidt in that role.
16y ago

chollida1 16y ago

Larry becoming CEO sounds like the same path that Bill Gates had. Found a company and become it's CEO. When it's time for the company to "grow up", bring in a well respected CEO who can structure the company for growth and stability while teaching the young founder. When the founder has learned the ropes he takes over again as CEO.

johns 16y ago
Gates was CEO from the beginning of Microsoft until he became Chief Software Architect prior to his retirement. Ballmer became CEO after Gates. There was never a gap between founding and CSA where someone else was CEO of MS.
- chollida1 16y ago
  Hmm how about that, it looks like you are correct:) I though John Shirley was the CEO for most of the 80's:)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

ntoshev 16y ago

I like the image of the self-driving car he chose as an illustration of who drives Google.

coverband 16y ago

I think one of the two founders just wants more face time...

andrewljohnson 16y ago

I bet this means Eric is on his way out. He'll stay on for a year or so, so as not to rattle investors, and then he'll leave the company.

Devilboy 16y ago
I doubt it, he's too young to be doing nothing. He'll come to his senses and stay on!
- Kliment 16y ago
  Given his track record, I highly doubt he'll be "doing nothing" if he leaves.
- andrewljohnson 16y ago
  After I posted this comment, the New Yorker came out with an article quoting an insider who agrees with me. It's a pretty straightforward thing... happens all the time.

sterling 16y ago

I'm sorry, but this is not "publicly clarifying" anything. This new is huge. My guess at the real reason is this: Google created and continues to dominate the global market for low-priced ads - but it isn't doing enough to retain that dominance by either innovating in search, developing content networks (like Facebook or Amazon) or by taking control of new platforms (which is hard to do).

cyrus_ 16y ago
They took control of the Youtube content network. They serve the ads for most of the world's biggest websites, and they have a solid foothold in mobile. I don't think Google is in any trouble. They really just need to make a compelling social product that appeals to the masses, not just tech geeks. I suspect Schmidt dropped the ball on buying Twitter at some point, and Buzz, Wave, etc. were all duds. He's great at selling ads, so they've put him in charge of that while the cofounders work on future product development.

stevenp 16y ago

Hopefully this is not another "Jerry Yang as new CEO of Yahoo!" thing.

dmoney 16y ago

My guess is this is aimed at stopping Google from hemorrhaging engineers in Facebook's general direction. "Look, we've got a programmer in charge again!"

donaq 16y ago
Eric Schmidt is a programmer. He was one of the authors of lex.

arrowoftime 16y ago

His Page rank just went from 1 to 1.

dikkat 16y ago

Eric is joining Apple when Steve leaves.

scrame 16y ago

From a programmer nerd, Schmidt has the most enviable resume. The entrepreneurs admire Jobs and Gates, but Schmidt worked his way through Bell labs, PARC, managed the release of Java, was CTO of Sun, CEO of Novell, and brought google from a well executed grad school project to dominate the internet. He turned down a job with the Obama administration to be the governments CTO. He also did all that as an academic, after getting a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He has gotten some bad press doing PR for google recently, but the man has been kicking ass in enviable positions since I was a toddler. After all that, yeah, good on him. Take some time off.

smikhanov 16y ago
Absolutely. Would like to add that he has never been a founder, always a hired gun.
- scrame 16y ago
  Yep, he's on the short list (with Ballmer) of people who are billionaires through stock grants without being co-founders or heirs.
jason 16y ago
And coauthored lex.
- scrame 16y ago
  Yep, surprised I left that out.

lionhearted 16y ago

Most underrated executive of all time? Google's been incredible under his tenure, blown away the wildest projects, and yet Schmidt's press has been kind of neutral to bad... actually, that doubly sucks because it seems like people get upset when he says true-but-uncomfortable things instead of just giving politically correct non-answers. I think as time passes, his reputation's going to grow even more... that was one of the greatest decades of any company ever.

greyman 16y ago
Hmm, I feel differently. My basic perception is that under his rule, Google somehow lost its focus and transitioned from the indispensable service to just a product company. Put another way, currently it is easier to live without Google that it was 10 years ago (but to be fair, I can't say if that is due or despite Schmidt's leadership).
- NickPollard 16y ago
  Isn't Search pretty much the only thing Google was known for before Schmidt's tenure? Everything from Gmail to Android to Chrome to Maps to Self-driving cars has been developed whilst Schmidt was CEO. When Schmidt joined, Google was a search company. A damn good search company, but still just search. Now they're a phenomenally influential technology company, who's products affect billions of lives every day. The fact that they didn't just sit on piles of cash but have used it to revolutionize field after field of endeavour is a striking achievement in diversification.
  - greyman 16y ago
    I agree with what you say, and I also don't want to play down Google's achievement. I just wanted to say that imho currently Google doesn't own any technology that would be truly indispensable - for any of their product, I can use competitor product without losing that much value. Yes, 10 years ago they were "still just search," because that was the indispensable way to navigate the internet, it was a core technology. During the last five years, the focus has shifted so "just search" is not that important anymore, but Google somehow didn't evolve, but instead has been developing new and new products. And while some of them are very good, in the future they all can be replaced by the competition. Google is just not essential for the Internet anymore, or at least that's my feeling.

evolve 16y ago

Despite the cordial collaborative tone of the blog post, it seems the picture, taken today, tells it's own story. Forget for a moment who is who and just consider the picture. There are two dudes in the 'self driving car', sitting in-sync with arms wide open. There is also another guy with crossed arms who is next to, but not in, the 'self driving car'. Can you guess where Eric is in the picture? Review the picture again and make your own conclusions.. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/TTirzCdsGgI/AAAAAAAAHW0/syTLBoNuYJg/s1600/L100288-clean.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/TTirzCdsGgI/AAAAAAAAHW...

gwern 16y ago

Farewell, Eric! As you slowly leave Google with your $5.5 billion, we'll always remember you for... for.... uh, those thingies you did so well.

jgervin 16y ago

Is looking to fill the vacancy at Apple?

slowpoison 16y ago

How much I wanted the date to be 3 days earlier!