Disgraced Google executive Andy Rubin’s Essential shuts down

Essential Products, an Android smartphone peddler founded by disgraced Google executive Andy Rubin is shutting down, the company confirmed Wednesday in a blog post.

Daisuke Wakabayashi and Erin Griffith for The New York Times:

Essential Products, a consumer electronics start-up founded by the former Google executive Andy Rubin, said on Wednesday that it was ceasing operations.

Once considered one of Silicon Valley’s most promising hardware technology start-ups, Essential had raised $330 million in outside funding because of the track record of Mr. Rubin, who is widely credited with creating Google’s Android smartphone software.

MacDailyNews Take: After he stole it from Apple, allegedly. (smirk)

See: Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011

Essential was also dogged by news about Mr. Rubin and the circumstances of his departure from Google. The New York Times reported in 2018 that Google had paid Mr. Rubin a $90 million exit package after claims of sexual misconduct with an employee were deemed credible. Mr. Rubin has denied the claims.

MacDailyNews Take: He also denied he based Android on Apple’s iPhone OS.

In 2017, The Information, a technology news site, reported that he had departed Google after an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, prompting him to take a leave of absence from Essential to deal with “personal matters.”

By the time The Times investigation into his departure from Google was published in October 2018, Essential was already experiencing difficulties…

Essential will be shutting with around $30 million in cash remaining, the person familiar with the situation said. Investors, some of whom had written off the investment after Mr. Rubin’s scandals, will get “pennies on the dollar” back, the person said.

MacDailyNews Take: Shocker.

Essentially stillborn… Yet another iPhone knockoff has proven to be quite inessential. — MacDailyNews, February 13, 2018

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: