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Google CEO and Co-Founder Larry Page is in the news this week for two main reasons. Firstly, his 41st birthday is on March 26. Secondly, he made some controversial comments at TED late last week. Here’s everything you should know about this notable CEO.
1. Larry Page Would Rather Give Money to Tesla Than Charity
You can watch Larry Page give a TED Talk in the video above.
Larry Page made some waves when he stated that he would prefer to give his life savings to Tesla founder Elon Musk, rather than bequeathing his estate to a charitable organization. Elon Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX, which aims to get Earth’s people to live on other planets.
The Christian Science Monitor notes that Larry Page’s money would give SpaceX enough money to fund more than half of a new space station.
2. Larry Page Has a Net Worth of $31.37 Billion
Wait… Larry Page and Marissa Mayer had a workplace romance at Google? http://t.co/033yDumGDs
— Page Six (@PageSix) March 12, 2014
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According to Forbes, Larry Page has a net worth of $31.37 billion. On one notable Friday in 2013, Page and fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin earned a combined $5.9 billion, according to Forbes. The combined earnings were caused by a sudden surge in Google’s stock price.
3. Larry Page Has a Vocal Cord & Thyroid Problems
According to BusinessWeek, Page suffers from a health problem that affects his vocal cord nerves. The problem has been ongoing for about 15 years, and Page often has to use a microphone to be heard at even small business meetings.
Page also has Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes chronic inflammation in the thyroid.
4. Page Wants a Revolution
Larry Page at TED: “I'm sad that Google is in the position of protecting you from what the government is doing.” http://t.co/9c7pvGeOIS
— WSJD (@WSJD) March 20, 2014
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Wired reports that Page wants a revolution to refresh the business world. Wired quotes Page as saying:
“Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that’s somewhat correct…Companies are doing the same incremental thing that they did 50 years ago, 20 years ago. That’s not really what we need. Especially in technology, we need revolutionary change, not incremental change.”
5. Page Is ‘Becoming One Of The Most Powerful People In Human History’
Last year, Business Insider ran a story called “Google CEO Larry Page Is Becoming One Of The Most Powerful People In Human History.”
The article compares Page’s spending power to historical figures like French monarch Louis XIV, as well as Khufu, the pharaoh who commissioned the Great Pyramid. The article adds that Page has a massive budget at Google, which is used for both business projects and “moonshots,” which are more esoteric and futuristic concepts:
“Some of these projects seem to fit a strategic business agenda, if loosely. Google spent $12 billion on Motorola like it was nothing. It’s creating a new gadget category with Google Glass. It’s connecting whole cities to the Internet through fiber optic cables.
Some of these projects seem less to do with Google’s Internet and technology business. It’s working on building and selling self-driving cars to consumers. It’s created a for-profit subsidiary to solve mortality. We’ve heard it’s building a quantum computer to solve problems like teleportation.”
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Larry Page, Google CEO: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know