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

googleblog.blogspot.com

131–140 of 160 posts

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

#131
post #57

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

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.

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

#132
post #59
post #2

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

Eric Schmidt has been CEO of google for ten years. In that time it's gone from (maybe) a $200 million company to a $200 billion company. I think any bad decisions he might have made along the way can be forgiven.

While true there might be a slight portion of outcome bias -- the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made (source: List of cognitive biases, Wikipedia) -- involved in that analysis.

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

#133
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/AAAAAAAAHW...

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

#134
post #127

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, afte…

Absolutely. Would like to add that he has never been a founder, always a hired gun.

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

#135
post #112
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

His first request was "Super Co-Founder"

I love the way Google functions in respect to top management

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

#136

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

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…

Hold on a minute, you think that asking for, let's say a public data retention policy is just a meme? For a big company, "we take our end-user data privacy incredibly seriously..." is generally the mandatory first sentence in a 30 pages document. This is not just about ads.

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

#137

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…

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).

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

#138
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

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.

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.

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

#139

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…

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).

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.

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

#140

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.

I doubt it, he's too young to be doing nothing. He'll come to his senses and stay on!

Given his track record, I highly doubt he'll be "doing nothing" if he leaves.
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