Andy Rubin says NYT story is part of a smear campaign, calls allegations false, is troubled that Google execs are commenting and misrepresenting facts about him
Has Amazon Peaked? BGR India : Google paid Android creator Andy Rubin $90 million despite sexual misconduct allegations: Report Alistair Barr / Bloomberg : Google CEO Tries to Calm Staff After Report on Misconduct Isobel Asher Hamilton / Business Insider : Android creator Andy Rubin says the ‘wild’ … Tweets: Katie Benner / @ktbenner : Many companies pay women for silence after incidents of discrimination or harassment. Google financially rewarded the men instead. A story a year or so in the making with @daiwaka. http://www.nytimes.com/... Andy Rubin / @arubin : 2/2 to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle. Also, I am deeply troubled that anonymous Google executives are commenting about my personnel file and misrepresenting the facts. Susan / @mintlodica : This is why I don't hang out with coworkers socially anymore. Why I plan escape routes at “highly encouraged” company socials. Why I have an “office wardrobe.” Why I book with a hotel chain that has stake in my loyalty. Why I keep a family photo on my desk. It's all intentional. http://twitter.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : 1/ Here's a story that @ktbenner and I have been working on for months - taking a look at how Google treated prominent executives accused of misconduct, including Andy Rubin, father of Android https://www.nytimes.com/... @edbott : “My phone was hacked.” http://twitter.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : 5/ In the case of Mr. Rubin and others, Google protected the men from the financial and reputational consequences of their actions even as they moved to push them out. By paying millions for exit packages, Google benefited by making sure those men didn't land at a rival Jay Yarow / @jyarow : Wow. New York Times on former Google executive Andy Rubin. He invented Android. http://www.nytimes.com/... http://twitter.com/... @chillmage : Andy Rubin's conduct as described here is monstrous, and Google looks complicit. The company's conduct is unconscionable as described. This will cast a long shadow over the company's employees for years to come https://www.nytimes.com/... David Enrich / @davidenrich : This is crazy. Google forced a top executive to resign because he faced credible accusations of sexual misconduct. And then Larry Page praised him publicly, and Google paid him $90 million. Amazing story @daiwaka @ktbenner @puiwingtam https://www.nytimes.com/... Jacqui Cheng / @ejacqui : “Of those 48 people, 13 were ‘senior managers and above’ and none of them got an exit package when they were let go” — except for the $2MM/month to Andy Rubin plus investment in his new company? And Richard DeVaul, who got promoted? @sundarpichai? https://twitter.com/... Agamoni Ghosh / @agamoni : He doesn't deny it. Worded to the wire by the PR team to show how much they care and what they did post letting him go but no clarification on this crazy payout figure. People expect from you @Google https://twitter.com/... Brian Fung / @b_fung : NEW: Google CEO says 48 employees have been fired in recent years over sexual misconduct allegations, amid reports the company paid millions to the creator of Android, an accused harasser: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Bertha Coombs / @berthacoombs : Google-minus on HR, it seems https://twitter.com/... Ken Yeung / @thekenyeung : In company memo obtained by CNBC, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote that 48 people have been terminated for sexual harassment in last 2 years, 13 who were senior managers and above. “None of these individuals received an exit package.” What about the millions that Andy Rubin got?
Context & Ripple Effects
Rubin's denial lands one day after the New York Times reported he left Google with a $90M exit package despite a credible misconduct allegation — the culmination of an arc that began when a 2014 internal inquiry into his conduct preceded his departure from the company.
The same day, Sundar Pichai told employees Google had fired 48 people for harassment with no exit packages, setting up a direct factual collision with the Times' account. Rubin's response escalates it: he isn't just denying the allegations, he's accusing unnamed Google executives of misrepresenting his personnel file.
First-order effects
- Rubin shifts from a silent 2014 departure to an active counter-narrative, disputing the allegations and putting any Google executive who comments on his file on the record as a named combatant in the story.
- Pichai's claim that none of the 48 terminated employees received exit packages now collides directly with the Times' $90M report, forcing Google to defend or explain the discrepancy publicly.
Second-order effects
- A public denial rather than a settlement keeps the story alive in court: the follow-on lawsuit alleging Larry Page personally approved a $150M stock grant to Rubin without board approval shows the dispute migrating from press narrative into litigation and board-governance territory.
- Rival tech employers face parallel scrutiny of their own quiet-exit arrangements — as Times reporter Katie Benner frames it, companies have paid women for silence while financially rewarding accused men, so every board must now price the exposure of its own packages.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large confidential exit packages for senior accused executives give way to board-level approval requirements and eventual disclosure, ending the model where founder-CEOs could resolve misconduct claims privately.
- Personnel files become de facto public accountability documents: once a reporter or litigant can surface them, HR confidentiality norms lose their protective value for both the company and the accused executive.
The trend: Tech's practice of settling executive misconduct with large confidential exit packages is being dismantled by investigative reporting, public denials, and shareholder litigation that drags the terms into the open.