Google CEO Larry Page Talks Steve Jobs With Bloomberg Businessweek

In a new interview with Bloomberg Businessweek's Brad Stone, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page revealed how the web giant is doing now, what lies ahead, and how it's faring with its competitors one year after he stepped in to take former CEO Eric Schmidt's place.

In addition, Page shed a little light on his relationship with his mentor and Apple's late co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs.

According to recent reports, Jobs didn't seem to be a very big fan of Google's. In a section of Walter Isaacson's popular biography on the Jobs' life, Jobs explains his fury following the launch of Google's Android operating system. Speaking to Isaacson, the Apple co-founder said he was "willing to go thermonuclear war" on Google and briefly laid out his company's retaliation plan:

Our lawsuit is saying, "Google you f***ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off." Grand theft. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product."

Larry Page, however, has a different take on this now-famous outburst. He spoke with Bloomberg of his talks with Jobs and reflected fondly on the advice Jobs gave him about running a company.

"I think the Android differences were actually for show," Page told Businessweek.

He later continued thus:

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better.

For Page, making the world better seems to mean expanding Google beyond search, not only with Android, but also with web-based services like the Chrome web browse and social network Google+. "I think what we’re about is we’re about using large-scale kind of technology — technology advancements to help people, to make people’s lives better, to make community better," Page told Bloomberg. "Obviously, our mission was organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful, and I think we probably missed more of the people part of that than we should have."

But Google's focus on the social space also pits the company against social networking giant Facebook, creating a competition that, according to the AP, is one of the most troublesome challenges facing Page as CEO.

"Larry is driven by his paranoia about Facebook. Clearly, these are two companies at war with each other," said Ken Auletta, author of "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It," per the AP.

Visit Bloomberg Businessweek to read the rest of Larry Page's interview.

Also on HuffPost:

Take a look at the slideshow to see where Larry Page ranks among the highest employee-rated CEOs in tech.

Loading Slideshow

• #9 - Meg Whitman, HP

  Current approval rating: 80 percent Leo Apotheker, who served as HP CEO before Whitman, received a 67 percent approval rating in Glassdoor's previous survey.

• #8 - Larry Elison, Oracle

  Current approval rating: 81 percent Previous rating: 72 percent

• #7 - Daniel Hesse, Sprint

  Current approval rating: 85 percent Previous rating: 77 percent

• #6 - Joe Tucci, EMC

  Current approval rating: 86 percent Previous rating: 88 percent

• #5 - Paul Maritz, VMware

  Current approval rating: 90 percent Previous rating: 75 percent

• #4 - Paul S. Otellini, Intel

  Current approval rating: 93 percent Previous rating: 90 percent

• #3 - Larry Page, Google

  Current approval rating: 94 percent Previous rating (of predecessor Eric Schmidt): 96 percent

• #2 - Paul E. Jacobs, Qualcomm

  Current approval rating: 95 percent Previous rating: 88 percent

• #1 - Tim Cook, Apple

  Current approval rating: 97 percent Previous rating (of predecessor Steve Jobs): 95 percent

• ALSO ON THE HUFFINGTON POST

  Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with investors at Goldman Sachs about Apple's financial plans, business operations and the future.

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Comments

[Ash G]

12:46 AM on 04/06/2012

And old Eastern bloc's country's saying still holds true: "We are intelligence officers. They are spooks."

[DavidEvan]

11:50 PM on 04/04/2012

In tech everyone steals as according to Dr. House everyone lies. As my old art teacher used to say their aint no such thing as original genius. New ideas are in the air. Talent, sweat and chutspa bring them to life.

[Brogrammer]

02:34 AM on 04/05/2012

Ah, but that was already accounted for... it's called the GPL license. That way, you don't have to steal.

[DavidEvan]

06:11 PM on 04/05/2012

That's why GPL makes sense and patent hoarding does not.

[DavidEvan]

11:36 PM on 04/04/2012

I need the Google driverless car to use my non hands-free Android phone which can't be used safely. I'm chucking it next week for my Suri Godmother.

[trollistan]

11:24 AM on 04/05/2012

siri will disappoint you, its just a gimmick

[gdatomic]

10:24 PM on 04/04/2012

And Larry Page made these comments..."for show"... See, there's a problem with using your own showy interview to accuse someone else of saying things because it's to their benefit. Not that Page is wrong...just that the pot just called the kettle black...

[tweedy54]

07:53 AM on 04/05/2012

Could not agree more! What he said about Jobs was so disingenuous!!!

[theveggiedude]

12:02 AM on 04/06/2012

I can understand why Page would say this - SJ was one of his idols, and was even his first choice as CEO of Google.

[jflorish]

09:38 PM on 04/04/2012

Jobs was right, Schmidt sat on their board and basically stole all their ideas and plans.

[Brogrammer]

02:42 AM on 04/05/2012

Android was being developed before iOS~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#History

[theveggiedude]

03:04 AM on 04/05/2012

That makes no difference once you see the prototype phone (just google it). The prototype looked just like a blackberry, and didn't have a touch screen.

Once the iPhone was released, Android went back to the blackboard to copy every detail.

[StinkyMoBub]

04:00 PM on 04/05/2012

And Apple ripped off Xerox - and so it goes...

[theveggiedude]

11:58 PM on 04/05/2012

Apple did no such thing. Xerox was paid with Apple shares. That is not 'ripping off'. Secondly, it was only Apple that had the fortitude, and the courage to put their neck on the line to come up with a complete new and different kind of pc - unlike anything else on the market. All the computer experts laughed at it as a toy. Computer do not use mouse's they said, and no one would want to use a pc with no command line. Plus, Xerox thought it was *impossible* to make a pc with their ideas, especially when the mouse they had fell apart after 6 days of use.

[edenooch]

09:36 PM on 04/04/2012

so whats the latest on steve jobs now?

[DavidEvan]

11:37 PM on 04/04/2012

He's laughing in heaven

[Brogrammer]

02:42 AM on 04/05/2012

He's bitching at Satan for not having a glowing white Apple logo at the entrance.

[faithisforfools]

09:08 PM on 04/04/2012

I am always amazed how passionate folks are about their phone manufacturers .

[edenooch]

09:40 PM on 04/04/2012

and or resentful. apple is evil greedy and gave a bunch of jobs to the chinese. i hope they go bankrupt

[DavidEvan]

11:39 PM on 04/04/2012

um with a trillion dollar valuation I kinda doubt they will be in bankrpcy court any time soon.

[Gravenstein]

11:07 AM on 04/05/2012

I don't think the thousands of Americans employed by Apple share your ill-informed conclusion.

[Jimmy Dee]

08:22 PM on 04/04/2012

Page pays himself $1.2 billion in zero stock option stock each year...he's a greedy israeli clown who stole the google idea from Stanford U that was funded by the US Government

[DavidEvan]

11:41 PM on 04/04/2012

Taking "a Page" from the corporate titan playbook..

[StinkyMoBub]

04:03 PM on 04/05/2012

And how does that differ from all of the drug companies using US funded universities to develop and test drugs whose profits then get privatized?

[Ash G]

12:36 AM on 04/06/2012

No difference really. So?

[poindexter]

07:52 PM on 04/04/2012

Google=evil

[StinkyMoBub]

04:03 PM on 04/05/2012

Apple=evil+good marketing

[amajamus]

07:42 PM on 04/04/2012

Well Android's still here and Job's is dead . . . so I guess apple lost!!! LOL!!!

[jflorish]

09:39 PM on 04/04/2012

100 billion in the bank and largest market cap in the world would say differently.

[kwapiv]

09:45 PM on 04/04/2012

I think Amajamus was being sarcastic and wasn't actually taking a dig at Apple, at leas that's how it came across to me.

[trollistan]

11:30 AM on 04/05/2012

mr jobs wanted to kill/destroy Android( not droid btw, its just a phone) and he failed ..
android has 55% market share, 30% IOS ........................

[theveggiedude]

03:06 AM on 04/05/2012

Nope, you are typing on a pc that uses a GUI, a mouse and the web. Without SJ, none would have happened for years or decades later.

[doubtful1]

08:54 AM on 04/05/2012

which Steve stole from Xerox...and the beat goes on.

[amajamus]

11:10 AM on 04/05/2012

You are so wrong

[Winski]

07:36 PM on 04/04/2012

Keep right on believing that Larry. Tim's legal team will rip you into shreds. Buh...bye..

[ResearchtheFacts]

08:30 PM on 04/04/2012

Dream on have you seen the new comscores? Apple has lost a long time ago. They are like third in the phone race now with android in the number one spot.

[icposse2000]

08:51 PM on 04/04/2012

Smartphone sales (percent of total units)
#1: Samsung - 25.6%
#2: LG - 19.4%
#3: Apple - 13.5%
#4: Motorola - 12.8%
#5: HTC - 6.3%

Smartphone platforms:
#1: Android - 50.1%
#2: iOS (Apple) - 30.2%
RIM, Microsoft losing marketshare.

Smartphone profits (percent of industry total)
#1: Apple - 80%
#2: Samsung - 15%
Everyone else is fighting over the last 5%.

Bottom line: Android sells more phones, but makes the companies less profit. Apple sells fewer phones and owns the industry in terms of making money. So much for losing a long time ago haha.

[theveggiedude]

03:08 AM on 04/05/2012

But you love to blame the Foxconn stuff on Apple, even though they make far more Android devices under even harsher conditions and less pay.

[Copyright]

07:18 PM on 04/04/2012

I'd sure like to see Apple move jobs back to the USA.

[dwhuston]

12:32 PM on 04/05/2012

That won't happen anytime soon.

[ur2nutty4me]

07:13 PM on 04/04/2012

Steve Jobs was one of the major pushers of changing trade rules and shipping American jobs and American technologies into the hands of foreigners not friendly to the US. May him and our elected officials rot in he.. ll for their action.

[theveggiedude]

03:11 AM on 04/05/2012

That didn't begin until 2002 for Apple, so you are a bold face liar... or just plain ignorant.

[themasterpuppeteer]

06:42 PM on 04/04/2012

Mr. Jobs was a hypocrite. Simple.

[amajamus]

07:43 PM on 04/04/2012

and a tax dodger.

[theveggiedude]

03:14 AM on 04/05/2012

HP paid 3.7 tax. Apple paid 31% tax.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/11/04/BUCN1LQ5IK.DTL

[OhioPoBoy]

06:05 PM on 04/04/2012

If you look at the original devices, the Google phone is essentially a Blackberry, the standard of the industry. Then Eric Schmidt, sitting on the Apple board, saw the iPhone. Before you could say ripoff, the "new" Google phone looked like a iPhone clone. Look up the images in Google Image if you don't believe me. As for "copying" and "stealing," the iPhone was an original, a "synthesis" of many ideas and a leap ahead to the next phase of ubiquitous computing. Those who quote Jobs about "stealing" they miss the point, that "great" artists steal and then advance the entire field. Just a copy of a Rembrandt is something anyone can buy but it would never be worth as much, no matter how nice a copy.

[amajamus]

07:45 PM on 04/04/2012

So Jobs can talk about how apple steals from others and that's ok . . . but not for others to do? BS!!!

[Onutz]

05:49 AM on 04/05/2012

((So Jobs can talk about how apple steals from others and that's ok . . . but not for others to do? BS!!!))

It's BS, only if you don't understand Art History. Context is everything.
OhioPoBoy attempted to explain the difference between "stealing" and copying, but I suppose you may have to be an artist to really "get" it.
Stealing within the artistic context is a popular euphemism for "studying master works". Picasso stated "Great artists steal" because they develop brand new ideas by studying the "Old Masters".

For instance Basquiat was influenced by Matisse and Picasso, yet his work looks nothing like theirs.
Picasso was informed by Georges Braque, Cezanne and Velazquez, yet his work is very different. John Singer Sargent's amazing works were also informed by Velazquez, who "stole" from Titian - Rembrandt learned all he could from Caravaggio, etc…
The point is, none of these artist's works look like slavish "copies" of each other.
You may have to study a bit of art history to fully comprehend.

[Neitherpartieslapdog]

08:27 PM on 04/04/2012

Xerox was the original Mac. We all said the same thing when Jobs "stole" the 6085 operating system, exact ripoff, down to the trash can. They had a clunky square box that they could not get to work, so they got the "mouse" from Xerox also. All us guys who worked on the 6085 were immediately experts on the Mac the day it came out. In fact, at Xerox, the guys who were around in the 80's still, today, call Mac computers 6085's. Steve Jobs never innovated anything, he was just a better thief.

[vonbek]

09:03 PM on 04/04/2012

yep if not for Xerox PARC Apple and Microsoft would of been nothing.

[icposse2000]

09:17 PM on 04/04/2012

Good story. The real story is much more nuanced:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Oh, and you don't seem to understand the difference between invent and innovate. You can make the claim that Steve Jobs never invented anything, but the claim that he never innovated is absurd.