Sexual misconduct: Google sacks 48

In a letter to employees on Thursday, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said the tech giant was taking a “hard line” on inappropriate conduct, media reported.  The letter was in response to a news report that Android creator Andy Rubin received a $90 million exit package despite facing misconduct allegations. Sam Singer, a spokesman for Rubin, denied the allegations, the newspaper said.

Singer said Rubin decided to leave Google in 2014 to launch a venture capital firm and technology incubator called Playground. Pichai’s letter said the story was “difficult to read” and that Google was “dead serious” about providing a “safe and inclusive workplace”. “We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action,” he continued.

None of the employees dismissed in the past two years had received an exit package, Pichai added.

According to the report, two unnamed Google executives said then-Chief Executive Larry Page asked Rubin to resign after the company confirmed a complaint by a female employee about a sexual encounter in a hotel room in 2013. A Google investigation found the woman’s complaint to be credible, it was reported, but the company has not confirmed this.

Rubin has said he did not engage in misconduct and left Google of his own accord.

Shares in Alphabet, which owns Google, fell more than 3 per cent in New York after it reported revenues of $33.7 billion for the three months to September. However, net profit soared $2.5 billion to $9.2 billion.