Day One with 'new boss' Larry Page at Google and mentor says he's leaving
The story is that he always planned to leave soon but some insiders think there's more to Mr Rosenberg's decision than that
Rosenberg is not going right away. He will be there for some months yet. But Page had asked senior executives to make long-term, multiyear commitments to stay - and, Rosenberg told local paper the Mercury News, that he decided he could not make that commitment. He had always planned to leave Google around the time his daughter went to college in 2013. No successor has been named but there is speculation that there could be other top management changes .
Rosenberg, 49, joined Google in 2002 after working at at Apple(AAPL) and the former broadband company Excite@Home. As a slightly older executive, he mentored Google up-and-comers, including current YouTube chief Salar Kamangar and head ofadvertising Susan Wojcicki .
Rosenberg, long regarded as among the most powerful people in the company, plans to take some time off, starting this summer, before returning to Google in a consulting role. He will also be co-writing a book with ex-CEO Eric Schmidt about Google's management culture.
Page praised Rosenberg."We tried to hire Jonathan multiple times because he was the only person we could imagine doing the job, "he said in a statement.
" It's lucky we were so persistent because he's built an amazing team -- hiring great people, who've created amazing products that have benefited over a billion users around the world."
Greg Sterling, an editor with SearchEngineLand.com, said it wasn't clear whether Jonathan was now thought to be less necessary in the new, flatter organization they are creating, "or whether he didn't like the direction the new leadership was going. I'm sure there was something more going on than meets the eye."
Rosenberg denied that his departure had anything to do with the faster-moving culture planned for Google .
"We're obviously going through a transition here," he said. "Larry is stepping into the role of CEO. And I think it was important to him that he establish and build around an executive team that intended to be here for many, many years."