“Google gave Andy Rubin, the creator of Android mobile software, a hero’s farewell when he left the company in October 2014,” Daisuke Wakabayashi and Katie Benner report for The New York Times. “‘I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,’ Larry Page, Google’s chief executive then, said in a public statement.”
“What Google did not make public was that an employee had accused Mr. Rubin of sexual misconduct. The woman, with whom Mr. Rubin had been having an extramarital relationship, said he coerced her into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013, according to two company executives with knowledge of the episode. Google investigated and concluded her claim was credible, said the people, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, citing confidentiality agreements. Mr. Rubin was notified, they said, and Mr. Page asked for his resignation,” Wakabayashi and Benner report. “Google could have fired Mr. Rubin and paid him little to nothing on the way out. Instead, the company handed him a $90 million exit package, paid in installments of about $2 million a month for four years, said two people with knowledge of the terms. The last payment is scheduled for next month.”
“Mr. Rubin was one of three executives that Google protected over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct. In two instances, it ousted senior executives, but softened the blow by paying them millions of dollars as they departed, even though it had no legal obligation to do so,” Wakabayashi and Benner report. “In a third, the executive remained in a highly compensated post at the company. Each time Google stayed silent about the accusations against the men.”
“Mr. Rubin often berated subordinates as stupid or incompetent, they said. Google did little to curb that behavior. It took action only when security staff found bondage sex videos on Mr. Rubin’s work computer, said three former and current Google executives briefed on the incident. That year, the company docked his bonus, they said,” Wakabayashi and Benner report. “In a civil suit filed this month by Mr. Rubin’s ex-wife, Rie Rubin, she claimed he had multiple ‘ownership relationships’ with other women during their marriage, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to them. The couple were divorced in August. The suit included a screenshot of an August 2015 email Mr. Rubin sent to one woman. ‘You will be happy being taken care of,’ he wrote. ‘Being owned is kinda like you are my property, and I can loan you to other people.'”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Do know evil.
A company full to the brin, er… brim with cheaters obviously had/has no aversion to ripping off Apple’s iPhone.
We love you, Karma! You sometimes take your own sweet time, but you never fail in the end!
Andy Rubin is nothing more than a reactionary mimic, and not a very good one at that. – MacDailyNews, October 31, 2014
“Holy crap! I guess we’re not going to ship that phone.” – Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin, moments after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone on January 9, 2007
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
Here’s what cellphones looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
SEE ALSO:
Google’s latest Android version tries to make Android phones more like Apple’s iPhone X – May 9, 2018
Andy Rubin takes leave from Essential as probe into ‘inappropriate’ Google relationship goes public – November 29, 2017
In colossal screw up, Essential shared customers’ driver’s licenses over email – August 30, 2017
Google’s flawed Android is essentially unfixable – May 2, 2016
Former Android head Andy Rubin leaving Google – October 31, 2014
Why Google really, truly, deeply hates Apple – May 30, 2014
Prior to Steve Jobs unveiling of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android didn’t support touchscreen input – April 14, 2014
Before iPhone, Google’s plan was a Java button phone, Android docs reveal – April 14, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
Oh he was just standing on the shoulders of giants. That’s all.
years and years ago even before android I wrote in other forums that Google was an advertising company and that people shouldn’t take their “Do no evil” slogans seriously, too much data showed it was just a marketing ploy and the Goog boys thought it was a big joke to suck idiots in.
Boy, did I get an earful of hate from Google fanboys who were totally in love with this (supposedly) “new ethical trail blazer”. With the breakdown of system like formal religion some people it seemed needed something new to throw themselves into. Schmidt and the boys were probably laughing their heads off.
as an ex marketing guy myself I couldn’t believe the naïveté but maybe i should have (being formerly in the business.) I guess i have been proven right. Never judge people from what they say but what they do.
There are no pro Google fanboys, just lack of options.
Looks like you haven’t read their comments of various tech sites and forums.
Contempt towards Apple does not a Google fan make.
Fan of which Android device company? All of them?
you’re too young or forgotten how Google leaders were treated by the ‘faithful’.
the goog boys and even Schmidt were at Burning Man etc, and profiled like rock stars in magazines etc. The Goog leaders made speeches about ethics morality , they said they were creating the first ‘moral’ company , and Do No Evil was the slogan front and centre.
The Goog boys were just in their twenties and hordes of college kids and others fell into the spell, wearing Google t-shits, having the boys posters on walls etc. (It was like Jobs before but more so, because it added a whole Social Consciousness twist .Jobs almost never made political or ethic statements, Jobs was admired by nerds, the Goog boys were worshipped by a whole bunch of general public mostly young people.
There were paperback books written about them emphasizing how ‘different’ Google was supposed to be due to it’s Moral Agenda.
BUT like I said people were unaware and didn’t associate that Google was A BIG ADVERTISING MARKETING company, staffers there were experts on media AND Slogans and understood consumer profiles and behaviour (note Google staffers advising political leaders today) and Do No Evil resonated with a whole bunch at the right time.
That was before of the Age of Skepticism, before Wikileaks, Fake New exposes, before Schmidt stealing iPhone secrets, before Jobs ‘thermonuclear war’ comments, before Google was fined for Wifi spying, before being sued by authors, artists, film makers whose works were stolen by Google websites etc.
It was totally bizarre, at that time you couldn’t say anything bad about Google without being trounced on. Absolutely there were Google fanboys.
Valuable insight into its early MO and into its cultism.
Let me take you at your word (mostly). Put the cults on a scale. And by cults I mean apologists, fans….
Yes indeed, very valuable insight and fascinating reading.
Obviously, once the big bucks started rolling in a sea change of attitude took place and Google lost sight of their once noble mission. Today they simply threw it all away and have no soul. That has to be awfully disappointing for the once young idealistic disciples remembering the early years.
Remembering back as a young Apple idealist in the early 1980s, I’m also dismayed present day in three areas:
GREED: raising prices and charging more while offering less. Few examples: iPhone pricing has more than doubled in 10 years. When you bought an iPhone in the early years it included headphones and a charger. Fairly certain computers included a keyboard and mouse and monitors were part of a package. Laptops with ports and computers with expansion bays eliminating need for purchasing expensive dongles, cables and peripherals.
POLITICS: Steve famously preached staying clear and not mixing with business so as not to offend roughly half your customers. Working culture inside favors liberal numbers most likely, but do the minority of conservatives and people of faith have an equal seat at the Apple table. Hope they do.
PRODUCT UPDATES: Yesterday Apple XR cases unavailable at a high profile launch and costing $49, seriously. Consistent lack of supply at launch and some products (HomePod) delayed missing the Christmas buying season and the wireless charging pad promised and not delivered at all. However, my personal pet peeve is the lack of attention to the Mac Pro community that started it ALL. Whether updating computers regularly, upgrading pro software rather than neutering key useful features or killing it off, altogether. We need love, respect again and a seat at the table. Certainly not forgotten because of numbers and market share.
Obvious Cook is only interested in three products: phone, pad and watch, fine. But Apple is larger and more diverse than the CEO’s personal preferences. He has much work to do for some of us to KEEP the Apple faith…
“Google could have fired Mr. Rubin and paid him little to nothing on the way out. Instead, the company handed him a $90 million exit package”
Wow, evil pays. Platinum parachute on the way out. Perhaps, the shareholders should sue the Google execs for paying out exorbitant exit packages when none were necessary.
When websites are displaying annoying Google ads, they are supporting such people as Andy Rubin receiving $2 million a month for 4 years
Everyone at Google knew for years that Andy was a sexual predator. They knew exactly what he was doing, and when he was doing it.
After all, Andy used Google.
Isn’t Google top management entirely populated by Democrats? (Hint – the answer is yes, like all of Silicon Valley and 98% of California). Apparently Democrats like to practice and even reward abusive behavior toward women. Maybe Christian values are not as awful as Democrats loudly proclaim.
With the current administration in the White House and you want to go with there?
Apparently you’ve never been to San Diego, Orange Country or east of I5. Need to pull your head out to see some daylight, get out of your parents basement and see that California is nowhere near 98% Democratic.
Stop drinking the Koolaide. If you don’t know what you’re talking about don’t put your ignorance on public display for the world to see.
And remember, despite what comes out of the mouth of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, facts still matter.
The entire legislature, the US congressional delegation with about 3 exceptions, and the California governorship are all Democrat. The city governments of all the major cities are pure Democrat. Yeah, there are a few good people there, but not enough to ever allow California to get out of the socialist hell it has chosen to create.
California voters love the woman candidate who ran in 2016 who facilitated her husbands many rapes by attacking the women who came forward with well documented stories of Bill’s rapes. That is a fact.
San Francisco voters love the government that has produced massive piles of street excrement and massive numbers of government subsidized drug addicted homeless. San Franciscans keep returning these officials to office. That is a fact.
Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein have both made tens of millions of dollars by steering massive government deals to their husbands. That is a fact.
I am not too sure about that. In the last two decades there has been a major population shift and of course the politics that go with it. Yes Orange County, parts of San Diego (where the military has a strong presence) and the Inland Empire maybe more right leaning but when you look at the population in Los Angeles, the
San Fran Bay Area, and increasingly libereal areas of San Diego pretty much is leaning politcally left. You might want to walk in the non-white areas of those supposed Republican havens and you will see mostly Democratic voters.
“Need to pull your head out to see some daylight”
“get out of your parents basement”
“Stop drinking the Koolaide.”
“don’t put your ignorance on public display”
Insulting and bossy much, sonny?…
“Maybe Christian values are not as awful as Democrats loudly proclaim.”
Certainly in no way awful and would most definitely help the greater good of mankind.
The tactic is simply proclaim good as evil in their minds, how Orwellian. Also, out of date belief systems and no longer fashionable, what a sin. Speaking of sin, does not exist in their vocabulary. All to be expected from Libtards in general, no surprise there.
I suspect the real underlying reason is they are just so afraid and can’t handle it. So at the end of the day, their selfish self-serving ways are part of the problem and not CONTRIBUTING to the solution…
Everything you say is true, however, as I see it the real issue is keeping to American values, which are founded on pure Christian virtues but were made secular and inclusive deliberately to avoid the rise of an autocratic religious leadership such as Iran’s. Our melting pot has always been turbulent and roiling with dissent, but that’s who we are and we are proud of our ability to keep it all together.
Spot on. I’ll gladly march in the pride parade…
Do no evil!
Well, only do some evil. But only to women.
And if you do some evil (and get caught) we’ll take care of you.
Wonder where this is in the company handbook?
At first, it’s all about positioning. You get the successful IPO, the weaker partners cash in and drop out. The ones with the throbbing temples, who want more, buy into the expansion plans. After that, optics matter, as marketing steps in. Pressures from investors ramps up, and weak-willed board members cash in and drop out. You hire professionals to pacify Congessional regulators. Meanwhile you hire data scientists to caress your golden-calf algorithms to maximise your ROI. After crossing into Croesus territory, you abandon your ethical misgivings for good, reasoning that the creation of wealth and its trickle-down effects justify your decisions. That precept justifies your retaining creeps, and later rewarding them, because they expanded your bottom line. Marketing informs you, once they’ve been exposed, that they need to go. You give them golden parachutes to both shut them up and to show you’re generous with talent, no matter how slimy. Top innovators and salesmen don’t come along every day, and you can’t be too fussy about their sexual predilections. Great men can effect great changes in culture and the economy, and oughtn’t to be held to ordinary human standards of conduct. Decency is for chumps.