Google’s Rosenberg Goes As Page Succeeds Schmidt

Google senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg on Tuesday announced plans to step down, on the same day that company co-founder Larry Page retook the chief executive role from Eric Schmidt.

Page is said to be looking to instil a more dynamic, start-up-oriented culture at Google, and had been looking for a long-term commitment to the company from Rosenberg, according to official statements. Rosenberg has been central to Google developments including Instant Search, and has taken the stage to present Google results, and been given sizeable pay settlements.

‘Amazing’ Rosenberg

However, Rosenberg had planned to step down within the next two years, when his daughter reaches university age, and wasn’t willing to make that commitment, the company said.

Rosenberg, who has overseen Google’s product development since joining the company in 2002, will leave Google this summer and will return in a consulting role, Google said.

“(Rosenberg has) built an amazing team – hiring great people, who’ve created amazing products that have benefited over a billion users around the world,” said Page in a statement.

Schmidt, who has stepped into a role as Google’s executive chairman, said of Rosenberg: “He’s been crucial to our success over the last nine years and I cannot thank him enough for everything he’s done.”

The move is expected to give Page more of a free hand as he looks to shake up Google’s management structure, looking to keep it as flat as possible and to keep employees embedded in specific business units.

Increasing competition

As Page takes the reins Google faces increasing competition on all fronts from the likes of Facebook and Microsoft, as well as mounting challenges on the regulatory front.

The company on Monday bid $900 million ($560m) to buy Nortel’s remaining patent portfolio as ammunition for intellectual property litigation wars, and it is facing antitrust probes from the US’ Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.

Critics say Page, who has declined to act as Google’s public face in the past, and who is said to have a brusque style at times, may not be the ideal person to deal with delicate matters such as fears over the company’s dominance or concerns over how it is handling users’ privacy. It has also been suggested that he will be less effective in competing with Microsoft in the cloud.

Page previously acted as Google’s chief executive from its incorporation in 1998 until Schmidt took over in 2001, and is said to have remained highly engaged within the company, pushing ambitious projects such as aiming to digitise every book ever published.

The scale of those ambitions has raised opposition on many fronts – from competitors as well as governments – despite the company’s reassuring motto, “Don’t be evil“.