Google gave Android creator Andy Rubin US$90 million, but ‘hid sexual misconduct claim’ that triggered exit
- Google says it has fired 48 people for harassment in two years, after The New York Times reported Andy Rubin was accused of forcing employee to give oral sex
- The inventor of the mobile software was involved in ‘ownership relationships’, a lawsuit said, in which he told one woman ‘I can loan you to other people’
Google gave a US$90million severance package to Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile software, but concealed details of a sexual misconduct allegation that triggered his departure, The New York Times has reported.
In a response to the article, Google said it had fired 48 employees in the past two years, including 13 senior executives, as a result of sexual harassment allegations, citing “an increasingly hard line” on inappropriate conduct.
According to unnamed sources who spoke to The Times, Google investigated and found credible claims from a female employee, who said Rubin forced her to perform oral sex in a hotel room in 2013.
Soon after, Larry Page, Google’s former CEO, asked for Rubin’s resignation. However, the company continued to pay him millions of dollars in instalments of US$2 million per month for four years.
Page praised Rubin when he left the company, saying in a 2014 public statement: “I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next. With Android, he created something truly remarkable – with a billion-plus happy users.”
