It was in November last year that The Information first uncovered the skeletons in Andy Rubin's closet. The Android creator had left the company in 2014, but they found out it was thanks to sexual misconduct allegations.
Now, it seems Google actually rewarded him for it.?
Android creator Andy Rubin
For those of you still somehow unawares, yes, the 'Father of Android' was accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct during his time at Google. It got to the point where an investigation's results in 2014 led Google co-founder Larry Page to ask him to resign. Yet, instead of tossing him out on his heels, The New York Times now says they actually presented him with an exit package, and a hefty one at that.
Google had been obliged to investigate an incident in 2013, where Rubin allegedly coerced another Google employee to perform oral sex on him in a hotel room. Apparently, the investigation found the claims to be extremely credible, which is why Page decided Rubin needed to go. Yet, Google reportedly handed the former Android chief, who had abused his power for sexual motive, a $90 million exit package. The last $2 million of that amount will be paid out next month.
That's not the half of it. During the early stages of the 2014 investigation, Google reportedly gave Rubin "a stock grant worth $150 million." It was incentive to stay with the company after he'd left the Android team to focus on robotics. NYT says it's unclear if Larry Page or any of the leadership knew about the investigation at the time, given that it would have been ideally carried out in secrecy.
Google co-founder Larry Page
However, they knew about it for certain when they handing him a $90 million exit package. They even allowed him to delay in paying back a $14 million loan he'd taken from the company to buy a beach estate in Japan. And possibly worst of all, Page at the time publicly praised Rubin when he made the announcement.
For his part, Rubin has continued to deny the sexual misconduct allegation, and calls the reports of his compensation "wild exaggerations. According to him it's part of a smear campaign as he's engaged in a messy divorce and custody battle. A divorce his wife sought earlier this year, a few months after the Information story about his sexual antics at Google.
On the other hand, the reaction from Google now is more interesting. In an email to employees the same day as the NYT story, CEO Sundar Pichai and VP of people operations Eileen Naughton didn't deny anything in the piece. Instead, they called it "difficult to read", and preferred to detail all the steps they say Google has taken to make women feel safer. In particular, they wanted to point out that they've fire 48 people in the last two years over sexual harassment claims, and none of them were paid an exit package.
In fact, despite Google's callous actions, the story says it was under no obligation to provide Rubin with an exit package either. The Times story in fact details other executives that have been given separation agreements over sexual misconduct allegations. Google could have just fired them all, like it should have. Instead it worked to protect their public images, for the sake of its own, and offered sexual predators millions in total. All Rubin was forced to do for his $90 million was not work for a Google rival and not publicly disparage the company.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
The Times story goes on to say that the 2013 incident was merely one of a few. Rubin may have met his now ex-wife Rie Rubin at Google, but he reportedly "also dated other women at the company while married." The ex-wife's divorce filing also sheds more light on the Father of Android. She claimed he had multiple "ownership relationships" with other women while they were married, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. "You will be happy being taken care of," a screenshot of one email Rubin sent to a woman in 2015 read. "Being owned is kinda like you are my property, and I can loan you to other people."
In an official response to the New York Times though, it doesn't seem the company has learned anything at all. "We investigate and take action, including termination," the company said. "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."