schmidt

SAN FRANCISCO--The Obama administration has not yet taken a position on whether a law is needed to force Internet providers to keep track of what their customers are doing, a White House official said.

During a briefing with reporters at the RSA Conference yesterday, CNET asked White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt if there was an administration-wide position on the controversial proposal, which is backed by law enforcement but opposed by privacy advocates and industry representatives.

"No," Schmidt replied. "That's why we're having all these hearings."

The most recent in a series of those … Read more

The decision to hand Google's CEO reins from Eric Schmidt to Larry Page was born not out of internal dissent or competitive fears over Facebook but rather out of the need to tighten up management.

That's the message Schmidt himself has been trying to get across. Though he's spent the past week defending and explaining the impetus behind the executive shuffle, he once again tried to set the record straight yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Schmidt worked to quash rumors spread by those claiming to have the inside scoop.

"All of the … Read more

Hey, you know what we need a ribbon for, people? We need a ribbon for the fact that less than a third of U.S. students have even basic proficiency in science education. Science. Education. You know, the foundations of the universe? The familiarity with physics and electronics that leads to inventions like cars, computers, and fancy tablet computers? This is a serious problem, and sure, there's other news today, but this? This is important. Love, Molly.

Google's Eric Schmidt, who, the company said Thursday, will move from CEO to executive chairman in the spring, has received an award of $100 million in stock and stock options, according to a report.

Following on an initial report from Bloomberg, and citing compensation specialists and data, The Wall Street Journal called the award "highly unusual" for a sitting CEO, adding that equity awards like this are usually given to new chief executives.

The Journal said Schmidt's award, which vests over four years, is the largest in grant-dollars for a sitting CEO since Sanjay Jha, Motorola'… Read more

Back in 2001, Larry Page wasn't ready to lead Google's 200 employees. Ten years later, with 24,400 employees, Page takes control of a much more complex operation, and both still have much to prove.

Ready or not, it's Page's company now, following news that former CEO Eric Schmidt would be moving up and out of the way to assume a traveling statesman role as Google's public face. Page's longtime partner Sergey Brin will focus more on product and technology direction while Page assumes control of Google's overall strategy and financial performance, which … Read more

Modern CEOs live on airplanes. But in stepping down from the CEO role to become executive chairman, Eric Schmidt's travel schedule is about to go into overdrive.

Google's bombshell announcement this afternoon that Schmidt, the company's second CEO but the first to provide "adult supervision" to Larry Page and Sergey Brin's world-changing creation, thrusts Schmidt into a role where he won't see the Googleplex very often. In ceding control of day-to-day operations to Page, Schmidt told financial analysts that he's preparing to focus on "the things I'm most interested in.&… Read more

This is a copy of a blog post Eric Schmidt wrote on the news that he would be stepping down from his CEO role at Google. The original blog post is here.

An update from the Chairman

When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined--even in my wildest dreams--that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people's lives--increasing the collective sum of the world's knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our emerging businesses--display, Android, YouTube and Chrome--are on fire. Of course, like any successful organization we'… Read more

Google shook up its ruling triumvirate today, announcing that CEO Eric Schmidt would be taking the role of executive chairman, while co-founder Larry Page will become CEO. Sergey Brin, who has also shared power with the two others, will work on "strategic projects," Google said.

Schmidt, who was hired by the co-founders to be Google's CEO in 2001, will focus on external partnerships and business deals starting on April 4, when Page will take over the day-to-day management role. Schmidt said in a blog post that Page, "in my clear opinion, is ready to lead."… Read more

The Internet is profoundly underwhelmed by Apple's announcement that the Beatles catalog will now be available on iTunes. The more germane question, really: where the heck is iOS 4.2? Also, turns out the Kinect (unlike Apple's Beatle announcement) is a runaway hit. Schmidt's not worried about Facebook Messages, and also, the Internet wants to stop the TSA's airport junk-groping. --Molly