October 19, 2015 at 17:44Eric Schmidt said that neither Larry Page nor Sergey Brin gave anyone an interview because of an article on Playboy
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Alphabet Holding, told Stanford students during an open lecture on why Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are avoiding interviewing anyone. Or at least they did not do this for a very long time.
Back in 2003, when Google entered the IPO, there was a certain atmosphere of distrust around the company in both its leaders and its future. Mark Malsid, author of Google. A breakthrough in the spirit of the times, ”says that the reasons for this were all kinds of negative rumors. For example, many industry media wrote that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting an investigation into Google, and a little later it became known that the large investment bank Merrill Lynch did not want to participate in the auction without giving reasons. In addition, Page and Brin planned to place shares at prices ranging from $ 108 to $ 135, which seemed to the market players to be too high a bar.
Until 2005, the United States had a special practice of the “Quiet period” before the IPO, which had been operating in the country since the 30s of the last century. According to this principle, the company is forbidden to publicly disclose any information about itself or about its activities during the period from the moment of filing a registration application for an IPO and after 25 days of trading in already placed shares. Thus, they tried to avoid possible speculation on the stock exchange and inflating stock prices of the company by manipulating public opinion.
And now, when doubts about the future of Google more or less subsided, the famous Playboy magazine published an interview with the founders of the search giant, which was entitled as “Google Guys”. The text was dedicatedthe company's business and how Google interacts, for example, with the Chinese government (there are no pictures on the link). This publication was seen on Wall Street as a violation of the “silence period” and added even more distrust to the piggy bank of doubts about the maturity of company executives. Moreover, the interview was not published in The Wall Street Journal, which is traditional for the financial market, but in an entertainment magazine known for photographs of naked girls ( no longer ).
The Playboy editor described his interview with the founders of Google: “Brin barefoot played volleyball in an open area. I barely dragged him out of there. He pondered my questions with a serious expression on his face, from time to time supplemented by a salad. During the conversation, he and Page (this one was in shoes) practically did not sit down. They stood leaning on the back of a chair, or walked around the conference room. Probably, when you are engaged in changing the world for the better, it’s very difficult to sit still. ”
This was the cover of the magazine:
The publication of Playboy led to the fact that analysts began to consider Google’s IPO as a “probable event”, “everything became unclear”, and generally it was possible to transfer everything to the fall (it was originally planned to go public in the spring of 2004). At this time, Google lawyers found a solution to the problem that satisfied everyone: the text of the interview on Playboy was added as an appendix to the company's IPO application. In response to this, the Securities Commission considered the incident to be practically exhausted and did not apply penalties to Google. Nevertheless, according to Schmidt, the unfortunate interview cost both Google founders serious nerves and financial problems (the maximum share price was reduced to $ 95), and they learned the lesson very well. Over the next 11 years, the media reported some changes and news on Google from Page and Brin,
Back in 2003, when Google entered the IPO, there was a certain atmosphere of distrust around the company in both its leaders and its future. Mark Malsid, author of Google. A breakthrough in the spirit of the times, ”says that the reasons for this were all kinds of negative rumors. For example, many industry media wrote that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting an investigation into Google, and a little later it became known that the large investment bank Merrill Lynch did not want to participate in the auction without giving reasons. In addition, Page and Brin planned to place shares at prices ranging from $ 108 to $ 135, which seemed to the market players to be too high a bar.
Until 2005, the United States had a special practice of the “Quiet period” before the IPO, which had been operating in the country since the 30s of the last century. According to this principle, the company is forbidden to publicly disclose any information about itself or about its activities during the period from the moment of filing a registration application for an IPO and after 25 days of trading in already placed shares. Thus, they tried to avoid possible speculation on the stock exchange and inflating stock prices of the company by manipulating public opinion.
And now, when doubts about the future of Google more or less subsided, the famous Playboy magazine published an interview with the founders of the search giant, which was entitled as “Google Guys”. The text was dedicatedthe company's business and how Google interacts, for example, with the Chinese government (there are no pictures on the link). This publication was seen on Wall Street as a violation of the “silence period” and added even more distrust to the piggy bank of doubts about the maturity of company executives. Moreover, the interview was not published in The Wall Street Journal, which is traditional for the financial market, but in an entertainment magazine known for photographs of naked girls ( no longer ).
The Playboy editor described his interview with the founders of Google: “Brin barefoot played volleyball in an open area. I barely dragged him out of there. He pondered my questions with a serious expression on his face, from time to time supplemented by a salad. During the conversation, he and Page (this one was in shoes) practically did not sit down. They stood leaning on the back of a chair, or walked around the conference room. Probably, when you are engaged in changing the world for the better, it’s very difficult to sit still. ”
This was the cover of the magazine:
The publication of Playboy led to the fact that analysts began to consider Google’s IPO as a “probable event”, “everything became unclear”, and generally it was possible to transfer everything to the fall (it was originally planned to go public in the spring of 2004). At this time, Google lawyers found a solution to the problem that satisfied everyone: the text of the interview on Playboy was added as an appendix to the company's IPO application. In response to this, the Securities Commission considered the incident to be practically exhausted and did not apply penalties to Google. Nevertheless, according to Schmidt, the unfortunate interview cost both Google founders serious nerves and financial problems (the maximum share price was reduced to $ 95), and they learned the lesson very well. Over the next 11 years, the media reported some changes and news on Google from Page and Brin,