When Google “fought to counter” Twitter’s offer to Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai is the current CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet. Pichai serves on Alphabet’s board of directors. Previous reports from WSJ and TechCrunch suggest that Google “fought hard to counter” Twitter’s offer to Pichai in 2011.

“Sundar Pichai, the man in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS at Google, is being aggressively courted by Twitter to become its next product manager, according to sources with knowledge of the situation,” said an article in WSJ’s AllThingsDigital in January 2011 Citing sources, the report adds: “Google is fighting hard to counter the offer from Twitter (now X), so Pichai could easily stay with his current employer.”

Another report in TechCrunch a few months later stated: “Google may have paid up to $150 million in stock awards to retain key product employees Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, according to multiple sources.” Both were offered the role of product manager at Twitter earlier this year. (co-founder Jack Dorsey ultimately took the job), but Google offered Pichai $50 million and Mohan $100 million, respectively, to stay.”

The report then adds that Google has set up a special group to respond to these situations quickly, sometimes overnight. According to the WSJ report, “If hired, Pichai would fill a vacancy left by the departure of Jason Goldman, Twitter’s longtime vice president of product.”

Tech claim: Sundar Pichai was also in the running for CEO of Microsoft and Twitter
Some tech industry gossip also claimed that Pichai was in the running for Microsoft CEO in 2014, a position that ultimately went to Satya Nadella. A 2015 Business Insider report also claimed that Twitter was tempting Sundar Pichai with an offer for its CEO position.

Pichai named CEO of Alphabet in 2019
Sundar Pichai joined Google in April 2004 as vice president of product management and was responsible for the development of the Google Toolbar and Google Chrome. Pichai launched Chrome OS and Chromebook in 2011, led the Android operating system in 2013, and became the leader of all products and engineering at Google in 2014. Pichai oversaw all products and platforms of Google, including Search, Maps, Play, Android, Chrome, Gmail and Google Workspace.

When Google reorganized into Alphabet in August 2015, Sundar Pichai was named CEO of Google. He joined Alphabet’s board of directors in July 2017. In December 2019, Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google and Alphabet, replacing co-founder Larry Page.