Another possibility: Larry is placing a knowledge firewall between the idealistic tech side of the company, now headed by Pichai, and the dark business side tha

Another possibility: Larry is placing a knowledge firewall between the idealistic tech side of the company, now headed by Pichai, and the dark business side that remain under him: advertising, operations & legal (e.g. NSA cooperation, lobbying). Schmidt in this interpretation would squarely be on the dark side of the firewall of course since he knows all the secrets from and is a proponent of that side.