Google Reportedly Paid Andy Rubin $90 Million After He Allegedly Coerced Sex From Employee (theverge.com)

The New York Times has revealed new details on the circumstances that surrounded Andy Rubin's departure from Google in 2014. According to the report, Google "investigated sexual misconduct claims against Rubin, which revolved around an incident in which he allegedly coerced another Google employee into 'performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013,'" The Verge reports. "Despite reportedly finding the claims credible -- to the point that Page decided Rubin needed to go -- Google gave him a $90 million exit package. The last $2 million of that agreement will be paid out next month." From the report: Before that payout, and during the initial stages of its investigation in 2014, Google awarded Rubin "a stock grant worth $150 million." The move gave Rubin, at that time a highly-valued executive at the company, major financial incentive for sticking around after he'd moved on from Android to focus his efforts on a robotics unit. The Times says it's unclear whether Page or Google's leadership committee knew about the misconduct allegations when they approved that huge grant. But they certainly did when reaching the $90 million figure as Rubin headed out the door, and Page offered public praise for Rubin in announcing his departure. After he left, Google proceeded to invest in his VC, Playground Ventures. And the company even allowed him to delay paying back a $14 million loan it'd given him "to buy a beach estate in Japan." In a statement to the New York Times, Google said: "[W]e 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."

UPDATE: Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to employees Thursday in response to the report, saying 48 employees have been fired for sexual misconduct over the last two years.

Comments

10% cut

[bill_mcgonigle]

I'm not saying he offered the victim 10% to make the complaint, but that would certainly be one way to get seed funding for a new start-up venture.

Re: Lascivious J bastards

[Tsolias]

Bad words against sjws, modded down. /. Is turning into a shithole.

Don't forget that google is the sjw company that treats users like cattle. Users are there to get their personal info milked for profit.
We shouldn't be surprised by all these, to be a google employee you should have zero ethics and self-pride. Everything for the money.

Re:Coerced?

[squiggleslash]

The simple fact is that realistically all it would take is a whiff of impropriety and you're fucked

Not really, no. It'd have to result in a formal complaint to HR (unlikely), HR would have to believe the best solution is to fire you (very, very, unlikely), and so on. A bad relationship? These things happen, and in most companies the people in those bad relationships tend to work it out themselves without getting the company involved. Usually that's just being professionals - we all work with people we don't like from time to time.

Note that none of the cases in the headlines are as you describe. They're not people who were in bad relationships, they're cases where a single man has groped, used his power to force sex with, or even drugged, multiple women. This story is interesting in that it's apparently one woman that made the complaint, but I bet you if you scratch below the surface you'll see that she wasn't the only victim which is why Google were so keen to get rid of him. They certainly weren't in fear of a lawsuit, as that would have cost somewhat less than Rubin's severance.

trying to fish off the company pier is probably the worst out of all of them.

It's not ideal, but it's the 21st Century, and in the US in particular with its lack of social spaces, it's the most available and common way to get hitched. It's fine as long as you're not a predator.

The men who are being #metoo'd are not being fired for bad relationships, they're being fired for multiple incidents of horrendous behavior.

Paranoia is a useful instinct, but sometimes it's whipped up by people with agendas, and harmful and needs to be overcome.