schmidt

An unlikely pairing has emerged in the online space.

A new start-up called Backplane has raised over $1 million in venture funding, The New York Times is reporting. The company's investment is led by Tomorrow Ventures, the venture firm that Google Executive Chairman (and former CEO) Eric Schmidt founded.

By investing in Backplane, Schmidt has a new partner: Lady Gaga. The pop artist owns 20 percent of Backplane, according to The New York Times.

Backplane, which has yet to launch, is designed to build and expand online communities around musicians and sports teams. According to the Times, the service … Read more

The World Health Organization semi-confirms what we've all suspected for years: it's probably not a good thing that mobile phones cause the cells in your brain to wiggle and change. Also, Lodsys continues its patent trolling unfettered by matters of conscience or threatening letters from Apple, and the PBS hackers turn their attention to Sony, as if Sony didn't have enough problems, already. --Molly

Eric Schmidt gave a bravura performance last night.

On a day when Apple dominated the headlines with news about Steve Jobs and iCloud, the Google chairman snatched the spotlight away by presenting the press with headline-grabbing revelations about Google as well as himself.

"CEOs should take responsibility," Schmidt told AllThingsD's Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the D9 conference, referring to his inability to develop a social-networking strategy. "I screwed up."

Apparently, there are two sides to the public Eric Schmidt. There is the one that freaks everyone out with his off-the-cuff remarks about Google's unchecked power to accumulate users' personal data. That's the Schmidt who can also stray off message, which is what he appeared to do two weeks ago in London when he said that Google would fight a bill designed to protect copyright even if it became law. Google couldn't distance itself fast enough from the statements.

Then, there's the other Schmidt, the one we got last night.

According to reports from my CNET colleague Rafe Needleman and others, Schmidt nimbly covered a lot of ground under a probing examination from Swisher and Mossberg. He met questions with snappy, candid answers that didn't always cast Google in a favorable light. Our CEOs don't often criticize themselves publicly or lift the curtain on their companies. For this, Schmidt generated… Read more

A number of waves have led to tremendous wealth generation in the computing industry: microprocessors, PCs, desktop software, business software, networking, online search. But to get rich today, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has this advice: build a platform.

Speaking today at a panel discussion at the e-G8 Forum in Paris, Schmidt advocated the idea of creating a foundation on which others' software can run.

"The fastest path to wealth is the construction of these digital platforms," he said, in which a company becomes the center of activity and "where other people depend on you."

And … Read more

Smart, strategic, and frequently inscrutable, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's comments must often be closely analyzed. Sometimes they're discounted as regrettable, off-the-cuff remarks. Other times, his statements are a window into what is really going on inside his company.

On Wednesday, Schmidt shocked big media conglomerates, federal lawmakers, and apparently even executives within his own company when he told reporters in London that Google would defy U.S. government attempts to remove sites from the Web that are accused of trafficking in pirated goods. Schmidt, who was at Google's helm during an unprecedented decade-long run of online-advertising success, … Read more

Google has signaled that the company is prepared to oppose the major film and music companies as well as Congress and the president of the United States on a controversial bill designed to thwart online piracy.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said today in London that the company is prepared to go on fighting the bill should it become law, according to published reports. U.K. publication the Guardian is reporting that in a discussion with reporters during a London business conference, Schmidt said: "If there is a law that requires DNS [domain name systems, the protocol that allows users … Read more

Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO and new executive chairman, has been handed a huge pay raise, according to a document that Google filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filing, Google's Leadership Development and Compensation Committee has granted Schmidt annual compensation of $1.25 million. In addition, he will be allowed to receive a "target bonus of 400 percent of his base salary." In other words, Schmidt could walk away with more than $6 million in cash compensation in a good year.

Schmidt's raise is effective as of April 4, the … Read more

Google has confirmed the resignation of Jonathan "J.R." Rosenberg, its senior vice president of product management, who has been at the company since 2002. Rosenberg's departure was reported today by Business Insider--the same day that co-founder Larry Page returned to the CEO post at Google, taking over from Eric Schmidt.

Business Insider reported that Rosenberg had planned to leave the company in a few years, when his teenage daughter graduated from high school, but that Page wants executives to commit in the long run. So Rosenberg, the report said, decided to bow out early.

"… Read more

Google's star has continued to rise over the last several years. But a new book reveals it wasn't all fun and games.

In his upcoming book, "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives," author Steven Levy takes an in-depth look into how Google started as the brainchild of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and became one of the most important companies in the world.

But it's the book's look into missteps in China and with social networking that may be the most eye-opening of Levy's apparent discoveries.

According to The New York Times, … Read more