The 53-year-old Reyes, at Google for the last 5+ years, said he will stay to help search for a new CFO, which Google expects will occur by the end of 2007.
Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt in a statement credited Reyes with steering the search and applications provider through its successful IPO (initial public offering), the nightmarish regulations of Sarbanes-Oxley and, of course, helping to scale the company.
But what the statement doesn’t say is why. Why now of all times? Google’s market cap is legendary at more than $160 billion. Despite the $6.86 dip Google’s stock took after the news, the company is trading at an obscene $506.40.
The company is acquiring virtually whatever it wants and, by the way, is emerging as a threat to Microsoft on the applications front.
If Reyes was a key player on a Major League Baseball team, or boxed professionally, you could only say he went out on top, with a fine legacy. Google’s last quarter? Nearly $4 billion in sales and $925 million in profits.
A Google spokesperson wouldn’t comment beyond that the move was a personal decision by Reyes, and I don’t get the sense there is a Google version of the Peanut Butter Manifesto lurking anywhere in its roomy closet. High-level executive departures are a rarity at Google to be sure.
Reyes is probably going to spend more time with family and land with a startup somewhere in Silicon Valley when he gets bored.