Larry Page absent from Google earnings call
The CEO's illness is still keeping him from talking in public.
As anticipated, Google CEO Larry Page did not speak at Google's Q2 2012 earnings call today. Speaking instead were Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette, Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, and SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki. Google's earnings release did include statements attributed to Page.
Google said on June 21 that Page had missed his company's annual shareholders' meeting owing to the loss of his voice but provided no other details. On June 27 at the Google IO conference, Google co-founder Sergey Brin would not answer questions about Page's absence, other than noting that Page was a very effective CEO even when he was restricted to communicating through e-mail and other text forms. On July 12, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said Page had returned to the office.
On the earnings call, responding to a question about Page from Ben Schachter of the Macquarie Group, Nikesh Arora said that "There is no new news." He said Page can't do public speaking but continues to run the company and is involved in all strategic business decisions.