Sources tell TechCrunch that Alan Eustace, Google’s Senior VP of Knowledge, is leaving the company. In addition to being a longtime Google employee, Eustace also holds a world record for highest-altitude free-fall jump.
It’s known that Eustace is retiring after leaving Google, not taking on a new role elsewhere. Staff received an internal memo announcing the departure, but it’s not known who will be taking over his role.
Eustace was reportedly looking to leave Google for some time, and took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself when Google began reorganizing its business, sources say.
Eustace has been with Google dating back to 2002, when the company was only 4 years old. Eustace left his job at HP to take on the role of SVP of Engineering at Google. In 2011, Eustace became the SVP of a new division called Knowledge.
When Eustace joined Google in 2002, the company was all about search. Now the company’s focus has expanded to include areas such as mobile, video, cloud serves, and even driverless cars.
Is it possible that this transition period is not being embraced by longtime execs? In the past year Android pioneer, Andy Rubin, has left the company, so has Sebastian Thrun who helped found Google X.
Google’s earnings last quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations, and we just published a story yesterday about Google’s search market share dropping to record lows.
Longtime employees leaving the company, coupled with numbers trending downwards does not necessarily look good on paper. Is it time for Google to make search the priority it once was?
