Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the Homepage

[Arp2]

Appearing this afternoon with Jim Cramer on CNBC,....

Cramer: "Google homepage...I think you've revolutionized advertising, and I think you know it, too. (Gesturing to all the white space at the bottom of Google's search homepage) Why can't you sell 'as presented by Anheuser Busch' right here. Why don't you sell this homepage?"

Schmidt: (Nonchalant) "We absolutely could."

Cramer: "And it'd be hundreds of mil...how much do you think people'd pay to be on that page?"

Schmidt: "Some number of billions of dollars."

Cramer: (Gently) "Well, why not...do it?"

Schmidt: (Feigning mild exasperation) "Because people wouldn't like it. We make the decisions based on what the end-user wants. We priortize the end-user over the advertiser."

Cramer: (Energy back up) "You're willing...you're willing to throw away....

Schmidt: "Absolutely."

Cramer: "...potentially what would be a half-billion dollars in revenue right now by just selling that page??"

Schmidt: "We absolutely are not going to sell that page."

Cramer: "Well, well, wait a second....if I'm a shareholder, what kind of attitude is that?!"

Schmidt: "Because, because you wanna be a shareholder for twenty years, and you want every one of those users to come back to Google over and over and over again."

Cramer: "But the domestic would be jumpstarted like you wouldn't believe!"

Schmidt: "You could take a magazine, and you could print nothing but ads in it; and, eventually, people would stop reading it."

Cramer: (semi-whining) "...but, right now, you're far from that."


I think Cramer was serious. I think Schmidt, even more so.




Update: Cramer was asking the questions that he "thought were holding the stock's price down."



.

[Bar Rat]

Holding the price down?

What does a share of Google run now, like $600?

[Arp2]

$500....reached $741 at one point.....but that's not the point!

[Hoosier Daddy]

If Radio would have valued the listener over the shareholder ...

[Arp2]

Valuing the listener is valuing the shareholder!



...and, of course, there are those who insist you must value the employees above all.....

[Lester]

...and, of course, there are those who insist you must value the employees above all.....

That's how my current employer feels... and there are no complaints here.