Did Steve Jobs really hate Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), or was it just a purely motivational technique? Earlier this year, April to be precise, we reported on the controversial issue giving insight from two extreme ends. On one far end, current CEO Larry Page, insisted that it was mere motivation, while on the other, Walter Isaacson, a biographer of the late Jobs, argued that it was a display of utmost hatred.
Today, concerns as to whether Jobs truly held negative sentiment towards Google have swelled. It has come to light that Steve Jobs warned Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s CEO, not to sell out to Google. This was revealed through a protracted profile on Stoppelman, which drew a lot of attention after giving a sneak peek into some of Jobs lesser known activities.
Job’s Off-duty Phone Call
Apparently, Jobs did make a call in January 2010. The alleged call actually interrupted Stoppelman’s conference call with a venture capitalist at the time. January 2010 was a tremendous time for Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP), as Google had unveiled its interests in buying. This would of course attract a lot of monetary returns for Yelp.
At that moment in time, Jobs called Yelp, and advised them against taking Google’s offer. Jobs hammered his point quite blatantly, citing that he thought staying independent and turning down Google was the best way forward. Ironically, Steve’s call came in after Yelp had turned down Google. He wanted to be positive that Google had indeed been turned down. Did he hate Google that much? Perhaps the endless courtroom visits by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can shed light on the matter.
Lawsuit After Lawsuit
Jobs had previously remarked that Google had stolen smartphone and tablet technology from Apple. Perhaps this explains Apple’s tactful way of hitting Google. Instead of going after Google itself, Apple went after Samsung (which produces smartphones based on the Android OS).
After hammering down on Samsung, subsequent activities pretty much added up to the famous Samsung-Apple legal war that everyone keeps talking about.
If Apple manages to bring Samsung to its knees, Google will go down with Samsung. Apple will kill two birds with one stone, and most importantly wipe out Android’s existence from the smartphone space- something that Jobs really yearned for. This is of course, if accents are placed on Jobs’ famous utterance that paraded his dislike towards Google. Jobs was noted for once saying that he would spend his dying breath stamping out Android.
