Google Reportedly Paid The “Father of Android” $90 Million After Allegedly Coercing Sex From Employee
A report from The New York Times Thursday revealed shocking new details on the circumstances surrounding Andy Rubin’s departure from Google in 2014. Rubin, who is currently the chief executive officer of Essential, and often referred to as “the father of Android,” was asked to resign from Google by Larry Page, according to the Times.
Google will be paying Rubin the last installment of his $90 million exit package, one he received despite being credibly accused of coercing a female employee into “performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013.” Two Google executives told the Times they investigated the woman’s claims and found them to be credible.
Rather than firing Rubin, the company began to pay him $2 million a month for four years, with the last payment scheduled for November, 2018, sources with knowledge of the terms told the Times.
During the initial stages of its investigation, and before the big payout, Google awarded Rubin “a stock grant worth $150 million,” giving the highly-valued executive a major financial incentive to continue at the company after he’d moved on from Android to focus efforts on a robotics unit.
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The Times says it’s unclear whether Page or Google’s leadership committee knew of the misconduct allegations when the huge grant was approved. One thing is certain, however, they certainly knew of the allegations when they came to the $90 million figure as Rubin had one foot out the door. Once Rubin left, Google proceeded to invest in his VC, Playground Ventures, even allowing him to delay paying back a $14 million loan given to him “to buy a beach estate in Japan.”
In response to the report on Thursday afternoon, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and VP of people operations Eileen Naughton didn’t refute anything in the Times article. Instead, in a letter addressed to all employees, they described the piece as “difficult to read” and went over steps the company has to make sure everyone feels safe in the work environment, noting that over the past two years, Google has fired 48 people for sexual harassment without any of them receiving an exit package.
Rubin, (@Arubin), responded to the Times story in a pair of tweets, calling the allegations “false” and the report itself containing “wild exaggerations about my compensation.” :
“1/2 The New York Times story contains numerous inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my compensation. Specifically, I never coerced a woman to have sex in a hotel room. These false allegations are part of a smear campaign”
1/2 The New York Times story contains numerous inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my compensation. Specifically, I never coerced a woman to have sex in a hotel room. These false allegations are part of a smear campaign
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) October 26, 2018
“2/2 to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle. Also, I am deeply troubled that anonymous Google executives are commenting about my personnel file and misrepresenting the facts.”
2/2 to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle. Also, I am deeply troubled that anonymous Google executives are commenting about my personnel file and misrepresenting the facts.
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) October 26, 2018
In the report, the Times says Rubin and several other executives received separation agreements after leaving the company over sexual misconduct allegations. Instead of being fired, they were protected by the company and handed millions. Rubin’s exit deal, specifically, prevented him from working for any of Google’s rivals or publicly disparaging the company.
Google responded to the Times’ questioning over the numerous cases by saying “we investigate and take action, including termination. In recent years, we’ve taken a particularly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority. We’re working hard to keep improving how we handle this type of behavior.”
The Times report goes on to detail a consensual relationship between Rubin and an Android employee in 2011 that violated Google’s corporate disclosure rules because it had never been reported to human resources. The hotel incident, which allegedly happened two years later in 2013, stemmed from an extramarital relationship between an employee on the Android team and Rubin that began while he was still overseeing the division.
The report says that Rubin met his ex-wife Rie Rubin while at Google and “also dated other women at the company while married.” The couple divorced this past August, just a few months after he had taken a leave of absence from Essential when The Information broke news of the misconduct claims during his time with Google.
Rubin returned to the CEO role at Essential while an ongoing lawsuit from his former wife sheds more light on his behavior.
From the Times:
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 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.”
After the sexual misconduct allegations against Rubin were first publicized last November, his spokesperson told The New York Times: “Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual and did not involve any person who reported to him. Mr. Rubin was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google and he did not, either while Google or since.”
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