ceos

Today marks Google co-founder Larry Page's first day back on the job as CEO since he handed over the reins to Eric Schmidt in 2001. He's been deeply involved with the company during Schmidt's tenure, of course, but in a decade's time the job of chief executive of Google has invariably changed. A lot. Instead of a company on a fast rise, it's a conglomerate that in the meantime has gotten itself involved in telecommunications, self-driving cars, television hardware, and venture capital investing.

So maybe this is what Page should be focusing on for his … Read more

The CEO of computer maker Acer has stepped down after disagreeing with the company's board of directors over the future of the company, Acer said in a statement today.

Gianfranco Lanci, who had been chief executive at Acer since 2008, disagreed with the board over the company's ongoing strategy, according to the statement from the Taiwan-based company.

"On the company's future development, Lanci held different views from a majority of the board members and could not reach a consensus following several months' of dialogue," the statement read." [Both sides] placed different levels of importance … Read more

Nvidia's CEO added his two cents to an increasingly popular theory on laptop design: that is, the MacBook Air as a template for all future designs.

In case you're wondering where the laptop is headed--circa 2014--Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang offered what could be considered a highly educated guess in response to a question I posed to him in a phone interview today.

"You'll have trouble finding one that doesn't look like the MacBook Air," he said. "I think the Macbook Air is a good mental image of what a clamshell laptop will look … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

HP WebOS event

New Nokia CEO's blunt memo

iPad 2 already in production?

Verizon to improve voice quality over 4G

NYU professor camera experiment not going so well

Google Translate for iPhone

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

Today we are talking about the lines of succession at big and influential technology companies. There are two big news hooks for this show: First, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be stepping out of his day-to-day role for a time for health reasons, leaving operation of the company with Tim Cook. Also, just yesterday Google announced that CEO Eric Schmidt is moving into an evangelist role and handing the CEO title over to co-founder Larry Page.

Reading the tea leaves of CEO moves and succession is like reading a good sports story. We've had other great tales in tech history: Bill Gates leaving Microsoft to his polar opposite Steve Ballmer; and the charismatic Carly Fiorina getting bounced out of HP to be replaced by the disciplined Mark Hurd in 2005, who was himself forced out last year. There are many other stories like this.

How much of a tech company rides on the CEO, and what can a company do to ensure it maintains a working strategy when the CEO leaves -- for whatever reason? Today we're going to talk about CEO succession, with two experts:

First up, Beverly Behan of Board Advisor LLC. She's a board fixer. She's worked with more than 100 boards of directors over the past decade on issues including CEO succession planning, board engagement, board and director evaluation, and other board topics. Bev is author of "Great Companies Deserve Great Boards," which will be out in June, and has a BusinessWeek column called, The Boardroom.

Also joining us is professor Charles Elson, the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Charles is a former law professor, a writer for both corporate and popular media, a frequently quoted expert in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post, and a board member himself, at the heath care company HealthSouth.

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Some of our discussion points… Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google's Eric Schmidt steps down as CEO

A new Logitech mouse is designed to work on your couch

Verizon files an appeal against the FCC's Net neutrality rules

HP replaces four board members with five new ones

Google is getting ready to compete with Groupon with Google Offers

A German software program could set an expiration date for your online photos

Angry Birds is being developed into an animated series

The 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition is released with all sorts of useless gaming facts

Samsung Electronics America's leadership was shuffled a bit today.

The company's outgoing president and CEO, C.S. Choi, will be heading to Samsung's global headquarters in Korea to become a special advisor to CEO G.S. Choi (no relation). In his place, Samsung is sending Yangkyu Kim to its America division to become the new president and CEO. He will oversee operations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Kim is a long-time veteran of Samsung, serving the company for 24 years. He was most recently the senior vice president and head of global sales and marketing … Read more

Venture capitalists expect greater investment next year, while CEOs of VC-backed firms are looking at more work and more hiring, according to a report (PDF) released today by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource.

Among the venture capitalists polled for the "2011 Venture View" survey, just over half (51 percent) are looking for investment to pick up next year. Only 24 percent expect it to stay level, while the same percentage believe it will decline. CEOs running venture-backed companies were also optimistic, with 58 percent eyeing an increase in venture investing next year and … Read more