In a major shock to Google's system, product chief Jonathan Rosenberg says he plans to leave the company in a matter of months. Mercury News calls it "the most significant change in years in the makeup of the company's tightknit senior management" -- not to mention poorly timed given that
Larry Page hasn't even had time to settle in as CEO.
"Monday was Larry Page's first day back as Google's chief executive, and the management shake-up at the top
has already begun," writes The New York Times' Bits
blog. Not only did Rosenberg build the product-management teams that developed the Chrome browser and Android, but he served as a mentor to Google's emerging crop of senior managers.
"If [ex Google CEO Eric] Schmidt was the adult supervision for Page and co-founder Sergey Brin, Rosenberg was the adult supervision and management mentor to the other young executives who
filled Google's management ranks," according to TechCrunch. Speaking with Mercury News,
Rosenberg denied that his departure is related to the faster-moving, more nimble startup culture Page is trying to instill at Google as it competes with Facebook and other younger social-networking
and social media companies.
"The timing nonetheless raises questions about how Mr. Page might change Google's management team, as well as its approach to products,"
according to Bits. "We're all adults here," writes Fortune. "You don't depart on the day of a CEO switchover unless there are some disagreements at the top."
Disagreements or not, "There is going to be
volatility, that's what happens around every transition," BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis tells The Los Angeles Times. "It's to be expected. There will be winners and losers."
Read the whole story at Mercury News »