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Sundar Pichai is the current CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet. Pichai serves on Alphabet’s board of directors. Past reports from WSJ and TechCrunch suggest that Google “fought hard to counter” Twitter‘s offer to Pichai in the year 2011.
“Sundar Pichai, the man in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS at Google, is being aggressively courted by Twitter to be its next head of product, according to sources with knowledge of the situation,” said a report in WSJ’s AllThingsDigital in January 2011.Quoting sources, the report added, “Google is fighting hard to counter the Twitter (now X) offer, so Pichai could easily stay with his current employer.”
Another report in TechCrunch a few months later said, “Google may have paid as much as $150 million in stock grants to retain key product employees Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, say multiple sources. Both were offered the chief product role at Twitter earlier this year (cofounder Jack Dorsey eventually filled the position), but Google offered Pichai $50 million and Mohan $100 million, respectively, to stay.”
The report went on to add that Google had set up a special group to respond to these situations quickly, sometimes overnight. As per WSJ report, “If hired, Pichai would fill an open spot left by the departure of longtime Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman.”
Tech grapevine claim: Sundar Pichai was also in race for Microsoft and Twitter CEO’s position
Some tech industry gossip also claimed that Pichai was in serious contention for CEO of Microsoft in 2014, a position that eventually went to Satya Nadella. A report in Business Insider in 2015 also claimed that Twitter was tempting Sundar Pichai with the offer of its CEO position.
“Sundar Pichai, the man in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS at Google, is being aggressively courted by Twitter to be its next head of product, according to sources with knowledge of the situation,” said a report in WSJ’s AllThingsDigital in January 2011.Quoting sources, the report added, “Google is fighting hard to counter the Twitter (now X) offer, so Pichai could easily stay with his current employer.”
Another report in TechCrunch a few months later said, “Google may have paid as much as $150 million in stock grants to retain key product employees Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, say multiple sources. Both were offered the chief product role at Twitter earlier this year (cofounder Jack Dorsey eventually filled the position), but Google offered Pichai $50 million and Mohan $100 million, respectively, to stay.”
The report went on to add that Google had set up a special group to respond to these situations quickly, sometimes overnight. As per WSJ report, “If hired, Pichai would fill an open spot left by the departure of longtime Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman.”
Tech grapevine claim: Sundar Pichai was also in race for Microsoft and Twitter CEO’s position
Some tech industry gossip also claimed that Pichai was in serious contention for CEO of Microsoft in 2014, a position that eventually went to Satya Nadella. A report in Business Insider in 2015 also claimed that Twitter was tempting Sundar Pichai with the offer of its CEO position.
Pichai named Alphabet CEO in 2019
Sundar Pichai joined Google in April 2004 as its vice-president of product management and was tasked with the development of Google Toolbar and Google Chrome. Pichai launched the Chrome OS and Chromebook in 2011, headed the Android operating system in 2013, and became the leader of all products and engineering at Google by 2014. Pichai oversaw all of Google’s products and platforms, including Search, Maps, Play, Android, Chrome, Gmail, and Google Workspace.
When Google reorganized into Alphabet in August 2015, Sundar Pichai was named Google CEO. He joined the board of directors of Alphabet in July 2017. In December 2019, Sundar Pichai became the CEO of both Google and Alphabet, replacing co-founder Larry Page.