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Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

techcrunch.com

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Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#31

Post by zsandwich »

xrd wrote: post #19

It's been amusing to hear his story. Starting a church/religion was my favorite part. I bet Google and a bunch of other companies are excited about the message this sends to other arrogant engineers who might be considering leaving and building new companies with ideas developed at their prior places of employment. That precedent is worth billions if not trillions.

Anthony brought self driving tech to Google, and that's why we have Waymo. Him leaving was an actual competitive threat to them. Look at Don Burnette and others who have since left. Google doesn't give a shit about them and they have AV companies that have raised millions of dollars.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#33

Post by ethanwillis »

loeg wrote: post #29
jgalt212 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, multiples of that before this settlement was announced.

No, those are pre-settlement. He's now insolvent. The article touches on this at the end.

Not if he bought a mansion in Florida early on.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#34

Post by ineedasername »

refurb wrote: post #5
zanek wrote: post #3

Levandowski just filed for bankruptcy saying he has less than $100M in assets . Does anyone know if he will only pay a percentage or is only delaying this by kicking the can down the road to another court ? I would be highly surprised if his employer (Uber) shouldered any of the this

I don’t believe that court orders for restitution are discharge Le through bankruptcy.

And bankruptcy doesn't actually discharge the debt if you have assets-- it just gives you breathing room and a formal legal structure to work with creditors on just what % is possible, who gets paid first, second, etc.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#35

Post by xrd »

paxys wrote: post #21
xrd wrote: post #19

It's been amusing to hear his story. Starting a church/religion was my favorite part. I bet Google and a bunch of other companies are excited about the message this sends to other arrogant engineers who might be considering leaving and building new companies with ideas developed at their prior places of employment. That precedent is worth billions if not trillions.

"building new companies with ideas developed at their prior places of employment" is VERY different from copying files and stealing IP. The former is the reason Silicon Valley is what it is today.

I'm not asserting he did either, there is a lot of grey there for sure. I'm saying that's the message a lot of people will hear from this result, for better or worse (my opinion is worse, but it's nothing more than my opinion). I think we agree here.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#36

Post by maverick2007 »

paxys wrote: post #21
xrd wrote: post #19

It's been amusing to hear his story. Starting a church/religion was my favorite part. I bet Google and a bunch of other companies are excited about the message this sends to other arrogant engineers who might be considering leaving and building new companies with ideas developed at their prior places of employment. That precedent is worth billions if not trillions.

"building new companies with ideas developed at their prior places of employment" is VERY different from copying files and stealing IP. The former is the reason Silicon Valley is what it is today.

The Traitorous Eight (the highest profile case of what the OP was describing) is one of my favorite Silicon Valley stories. If you haven't read about it, you really should! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#37

Post by loeg »

specular wrote: post #23
tomerico wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how he doesn't have more assets after he sold his company to Uber for $680 millions

Very difficult to answer this with specificity, but in general there are a number of factors that influence the amount of cash you ultimately net from a sale, including: - Cap table: what % is owed to other founders, investors, employees, etc? - The total acquisition price may include substantial legal and other fees that will lower the actual amount received by the owners or shareholders. - How much of the acquisiti…

His company existed for a seven months in 2016 before being bought by Uber. It isn't clear (to me) if there were third party investors or what the cap table was, broadly. Purportedly 90 employees at time of sale to Uber.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#39

Post by umeshunni »

markdown wrote: post #11

> Ron settled last month with Google for $9.7 million. Smart guy.

Uber paid that. As mentioned in the Reuters article -

Waymo confirmed that Uber had paid the $9.7 million owed by Ron, as Uber indemnifies workers under its employment agreements. But Uber had said in financial filings that it expects to challenge paying for Levandowski, who is fighting a federal indictment on charges of stealing trade secrets from Google.

Re: Anthony Levandowski ordered to pay $179M to Google

#40

Post by garmaine »

tomerico wrote: post #6
zanek wrote: post #3

Levandowski just filed for bankruptcy saying he has less than $100M in assets . Does anyone know if he will only pay a percentage or is only delaying this by kicking the can down the road to another court ? I would be highly surprised if his employer (Uber) shouldered any of the this

I wonder how he doesn't have more assets after he sold his company to Uber for $680 millions

He bought a large house in Florida?
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