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Clive Wilikinson
Posts Tagged “
Eric Schmidt
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Clive Wilikinson
google
Schmidt: Yahoo search deal takes effect in October
In June, Google said the U.S. Department of Justice could take three and half months to investigate its search marketing deal with Yahoo. Time is almost up, Google CEO Eric Schmidt yesterday told Bloomberg TV, saying that Google has decided the agreement will proceed by early October. "We are going to move forward,'' said Schmidt.We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us. We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong. Yahoo has made it very, very clear they're going to take the best parts of their network and ours and combine them.'More »
food fight
Google food manager charged with double-dealing
The brouhaha over Google's once-legendary, now troubled free-meals perk has bubbled up more charges of wrongdoing in the search engine's kitchens. An anonymous poster has taken to Craigslist to air charges against Google's former global food manager, John Dickman. (The post refers to him as "Dick," but it's obviously Dickman being discussed.) The Craigslist poster claims Dickman, left, who is married to Lisa McEuen, right, an executive at the parent company of food-service operator Bon Appétit, with leaking inside information which helped Bon Appétit win a contract to run Google's in-house meal service. More »
clips
Eric Schmidt on Jim Cramer's Mad Money, the 60-second version
Eric Schmidt spent 18 minutes on CNBC yesterday talking to Mad Money's Jim Cramer, but per usual, the Google CEO didn't say much. Only about 60 seconds worth, we discovered after boiling the segment down to its crucial bits. Learn that Google is bad economy-proof, YouTube doesn't make money (and doesn't need to), and that shareholders should just stay quiet in the clip above.
clips
Schmidt: YouTube might just be a loss-leader
Loudmouth Mark Cuban mockingly characterizes Google — which still can't figure out how to make money off YouTube — as the vendor who brags: "we are losing money on every sale, but we will make it up in volume."But Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't deny the charge. On Jim Cramer's Mad Money yesterday, Schmidt said "Eventually, we'd like to make some money of out [YouTube], but even if we don't, even if ultimately its a loss leader, the fact that so many people come to YouTube means they ultimately come to Google and click on ads." The numbers back up Schmidt's claims. According to ComScore, in June 2008 YouTube pointed 2.4 million search queries through Google search — just a couple hundred thousand fewer than Yahoo search.
Tech Tyrants
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer: Would like to "kill" Google and its "pussy" CEO
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer loses it all the time, but nothing beats the story of when former Microsoft engineer Mark Lucovsky went into Ballmer's office to say he'd been poached by Google. After Google hired away Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee, Microsoft sued and eventually, Lucovsky ended up telling the story under oath. A telling excerpt:
At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google. At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google."More »
failanthropy
How Eric Schmidt funds Wendy Schmidt, tax-free
We always wondered what, exactly, Wendy Schmidt saw in her husband Eric, the billionaire CEO of Google who sometimes prefers the company of other women. A review of the couple's charitable ventures makes things clearer. The Schmidt Family Foundation, which reported $84 million in assets in December 2006, has handed out some grants since its formation two years ago. But its biggest charitable project seems to be Wendy Schmidt herself. More »
death of print
Eric Schmidt laments lack of Iraq war coverage, while hiring away journalists
Google CEO Eric Schmidt stopped by Advertising Age's Madison and Vine conference last week, and proceeded to weep incredibly expensive tears over the fate of investigative journalism after Google helped eviscerate newspapers' business. "It's a tragedy for America," Schmidt declares before noting how few resources are going into reporting on the war in Iraq. "We'd spend a little more money to cover it, but our economic system doesn't justify that." Meanwhile, across the pond, Google hired away veteran BBC newsman Peter Barron of Newsnight for the company's public relations machine. Maybe Google will open a new PR bureau in Baghdad and send flacks to the front lines to cover the war. Would certainly be one way to improve Google News.
your privacy is an illusion
Privacy advocates nearly publish guide to carjacking Google executive
In a response to Google's recent assertion that "complete privacy does not exist," the National Legal and Policy Center released a step-by-step guide [PDF] to finding an unnamed "senior executive" from the company. While it doesn't reveal the home address, it does show a number of intersections where one might lie in wait to assault or kidnap said executive. Using Google Search, Maps and Street View, naturally. More »
eric schmidt
"We're smarter than ever" thanks to MTV, Google
Career crank Nicholas Carr's cover story for The Atlantic asks, "Is Google making us stupid?" Oh come on, Google chief Eric Schmidt told an AdAge-sponsored conference in New York. They said that about color TV forty years ago. You can watch Schmidt here, or you can pull up your pants and read Carr's 4,000-word feature. But more likely you'd prefer my 100-word excerpt: More »
live coverage
Google revenues up, profits down
Google reported revenues of $5.4 billion for 2008's second quarter, which after payments to Web publishers which carry Google-sold ads, comes to $3.9 billion, just $30 million ahead of Wall Street's expectations. Second-quarter revenues grew 39 percent over the same period last year and increased 3 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Google earned $1.25 billion in profits in the quarter, down from $1.31 billion in the first. In statement, CEO Eric Schmidt said "Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment." Wait — we thought Google was immune to such paltry outside influences. Guess not: Google operating expenses in the second quarter of 2008 included $810 million in payroll-related and facilities expenses, compared to $809 million in the first quarter of 2008, which means the company's made sure to clamp down on expenses. Live coverage of Google's second quarter 2008 earnings call, below. More »
hubris
Forecasting Google's second-quarter earnings
Lately, there's been a downturn in the ad market. Even online advertising isn't growing as fast as it used to. But don't expect these macroeconomic trends to effect Google's second-quarter earnings report today. Google isn't a bellwether for the economy, CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters in Idaho last week. "We make our own weather," he said. With those remarks in mind, we'll let analysts like Citi's Mark Mahaney — who created the useful cheat sheet above — tell you what kind of numbers to expect today. Our forecast for today's earning's call instead? A downpour of arrogance and gutters full of gloating.
google
Sergey Brin cares about the children
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page sat down with reporters for over an hour during an impromptu press conference while playing Bilderbergers at Allen & Co.'s exclusive Sun Valley getaway yesterday. There was talk of Google's Android cell-phone operating system; of China; of the search-ads deal with Yahoo. But it was fitness enthusiast Sergey Brin, rushing in late after a reported flat bicycle tire, who stole the show with feel-good blather: More »
Google's conflicted board
CEO Eric Schmidt's Apple board seat is only the beginning of Google's high-level conflicts of interests. Once Google's directors get done recusing themselves, there might not be anyone left in the boardroom. [Portfolio]
CEO Eric Schmidt's Apple board seat is only the beginning of Google's high-level conflicts of interests. Once Google's directors get done recusing themselves, there might not be anyone left in the boardroom. [Portfolio]
yahoo raid
Yahoo refuses to pay News Corp. $15 billion for MySpace
There's desperate — and then there's "paying $15 billion for second-place has-been social network MySpace" desperate. Not even Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, under pressure from a mixed-up Microsoft, angry shareholders, and crazy-old-coot corporate raider Carl Icahn to do some kind of deal, is that desperate. Yang is taking so much heat for blowing merger negotiations with Microsoft, botching the company's reorg, and losing top talent that he's probably going to lose his job come August 1, when the company holds an annual shareholder meeting. But despite all that, a source close to the company told Reuters that Yang refused a bailout deal with News Corp. that would have combined Yahoo with MySpace because "News Corp. sought a value of as much as $15 billion for those assets." At long last, we're happy to credit Yang for a smart move! More »
mine is bigger
Keeping Bezos, Ellison and Schmidt safe cost $3.4 million last year
Keeping Oracle CEO and cofounder Larry Ellison safe cost the company $1.7 million over the fiscal year ending May 31, 2007. Most of that money went to guards at his homes as well as installing and repairing home security systems, according to Oracle's SEC filings. Part of Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos's 2007 compensation included $1.2 milion for personal security. Google CEO Eric Schmidt spent $475,000 on security in 2007. A lot of the money probably goes to security precautions that might seem a lot more like luxuries than necessities. More »
nerdfight
Google's Eric Schmidt models CEO diplomacy
With the cool confidence inspired by sitting more than a little above the fray in the whole Microsoft-Yahoo fracas, Eric Schmidt sat down on Tuesday for a taped interview with Fox Business's Liz Claman, resulting in fifteen minutes of the smooth talker on video. Schmidt has been working a press tour leading up to the cessation of talks between Microsoft and Yahoo. At the beginning of this clip, he praises Microsoft's leadership and then suggests that they could be "hostile" with their market power. By the end, he's downplaying any presumption of antitrust litigation arising in the event of any partnership between Google and Yahoo, citing how competitive the space is. It's almost convincing.
valley spawn
