Google Shakeup Theory: Sundar Pichai Offered Twitter CEO Job

Matt Rosoff, writing for Business Insider:

There’s an interesting theory making the rounds among some Silicon Valley insiders today.

Twitter is looking for a new CEO. Perhaps it made an offer to Sundar Pichai, who’s been leading Google’s core businesses since last October. To keep Pichai, Google decided to pull the trigger on an organizational change it’s been considering for some time, giving Pichai the CEO title while keeping the same set of duties.

I’ve gotten at least a dozen emails and tweets from DF readers suggesting this same theory, but I don’t buy it. Twitter may well have been looking at Pichai, but I don’t buy it that Page and Brin would radically change the structure of Google just to keep Pichai. Pichai is obviously very smart, and very talented. He’s kicking ass. But I don’t see him as irreplaceable. And even if he is that important to Google, would co-founders Page and Brin see him that way? And why the hell would Pichai be tempted to go to Twitter? The company is a mess and its executive history is a mess.

I think this Alphabet move is about what Page and Brin want for themselves and want for the company, not about making Sundar Pichai happy. But I think Page was being straightforwardly honest in his praise for Pichai in today’s announcement.

★ Tuesday, 11 August 2015