I worked for Andy for a few years at Danger. He's a great guy. He's got a great mix of technical skills, business savvy and being a generally nice bloke.<p>He's also ridiculously generous.
Also, he builds cool robots for fun (or at least used to).
Hm. I thought this was the most interesting part:<p><i>The Journal said Rubin was a "central player" in the deal, though Google hasn't commented on the specifics of how the deal was done.</i><p>Maybe it's not Larry Page who wants to be Steve Jobs.<p>Edit: Not that Rubin's appreciation of his staff isn't interesting or awesome. I think that's great, too!
<i>A shareholder sued Motorola Mobility and its CEO Sanjay Jha over the price paid to the company.</i><p>People will sue over anything. Google bought it for 60% more than the stock price at the time, and the analyst consensus was that was quite a high premium.
First rule: Do the right thing for your people.<p>A friend of mine worked as a group leader for a major tech company for years. Put in 14 to 16 hours a day for six months to release a major project. On launch, the company gave my friend a $10,000 bonus, and gave the group pizza and a trophy. He split his bonus with his entire team. He got laid off 3 months later. He immediately started running a consultancy, and hired away most of his group. The company has since tanked.<p>Do the right thing for your people, and they will lay down in traffic for you if you ask them to. Screw them over, and they will milk your company dry.<p>Rubin's a smart guy.
Definitely an amazing guy! But the deal sounds a bit strange... I mean - his bonus is his personal income. Why Google executives pay their teams with their personal money, wouldn't it make more sense to re-adjust the bonuses payable with company money? Also, I'm curious how it works from IRS point of view - did he end up paying taxes on that as well?
Instantly scored a 150 out of a 100 possible points on my scale, this Andy Rubin.<p>May God bless your soul. What you've given will come back ten fold.