So Eric Schmidt is *really* out at Google?

Schmidt's main value to Google: he was a political animal who understood that antitrust was the only thing that could stop the search giant.

He made a lot of smart bets until he lost a big one. https://twitter.com/lutherlowe/status/1259174339255074823

Pre-Google, Schmidt ran Novell, which was an antagonist in US v Microsoft. He watched in awe as a company which many thought was unstoppable was severely hobbled in the late 90s (creating oxygen for Google's rise). In '01, anti-Microsoft pal/battle buddy John Doerr recruited him.

Schmidt saw Google growth and knew monopoly was imminent.

By 2002, Schmidt poached the top tech IO economist in the world, Hal Varian. US v Microsoft showed that post-Bork, econs like Varian called the shots in interpreting and enforcing antitrust law. Smart bet.

In 2008, Schmidt spent election night basking in the glory of another smart bet: getting on the Obama train early.
(By the the 2012 re-election, he spent election night in the "boiler room" with Obama's top brass.)

By 2007, Google had won search. This was also the year Google began shifting from a turnstile into a portal. Universal search was launched. In violation of antitrust law, Google injected itself into vertical markets according to their popularity (local) & profitability (shopping)

Retrospectively, search experts like @randfish have called this the Trojan Horse strategy. https://twitter.com/randfish/status/1030214287845801984

As the market leader, the pressure in D.C. began, but Schmidt's early bets started to pay off. The crescendo was a Sept 2011 hearing where he lied before Congress multiple times. It didn't matter.

Google was Obama's Halliburton.

https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-with-the-obama-white-house-in-two-charts/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-makes-most-of-close-ties-to-white-house-1427242076

The fame and fortune made Schmidt a celebrity in the business world. It brought a lot of attention to his personal life. @samfbiddle had my favorite coverage along these lines http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-many-women-of-eric-schmidts-instagram-913796517

(BTW these aren't the only salacious questions about Schmidt's personal life that have been raised...) https://twitter.com/xeni/status/1231068297505886208

Things unraveled for Schmidt somewhat in early 2014. He was given a $100mn bonus ostensibly for negotiating a settlement with the European Commission, except the deal fell apart later in the year and it would initiate a series of fines totaling ~$10B in the EU.

2 months later he was infiltrating Clinton world. Podesta's hacked emails showed he was sending 3-page, single spaced advice memos he'd authored a full year before Hillary Clinton even announced. What a political animal!

Not Bezos. Not Cook. Not Zuckerberg.

Eric Schmidt.

On election night 2016, I bumped into him and asked if he'd pose with me for a photo. He was wearing a "Staff" badge with his name on it because of course he was.

That night was the beginning of the end of the Schmidt era at Google.

The big bet on Clinton became a liability.

Employees were habituated to expect Google to support democrats (i.e. resist Trump).

But since it was always about forestalling antitrust, Schmidt was screwed.

To defend Google in D.C. he had to suck up, but googlers weren't having it, per @nitashatiku: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-three-years-misery-happiest-company-tech/

In conclusion, Schmidt's political bets were always about protecting Google's interests. When his bets stopped paying off, he wasn't useful to the company anymore. Now he's advising Cuomo & was in early on Biden. He still has a major stake in Google, so is it really the end?