Schmidt:Google won’t screw up Android

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Though its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility will put Google in the business of making smartphones, the search giant says other manufacturers of Android-powered handsets have nothing to fear. Motorola Mobility will be given no advantages over any other Android hardware partner.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company won’t allow its new ties with Motorola to spoil relations with its existing partners.

“The Android ecosystem is the No. 1 priority, and that we won’t do anything with Motorola, or anybody else by the way, that would screw up the dynamics of that industry,”Schmidt told Bloomberg. “We need strong, hard competition among all the Android players. We won’t play favorites in the way people are concerned about.”

But if anyone else attempts to scew with those industry dynamics, watch out. Schmidt says Google Motorola is happy to use Motorola’s significant patent portfolio to protect the Android ecosystem.

HP’s New CEO Takes $1 Annual Salary and Lots of Stock Options

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Along side the exit package for former CEO Léo Apotheker just announced, Hewlett-Packard also disclosed the compensation package for its new CEO, Meg Whitman. Here are the highlights:

• A base salary of $1 per year. In doing so she’s following the example of another well-known CEO who just stepped down from his job: Former Apple CEO and now Chairman Steve Jobs.
• An option to purchase 1.9 million shares of HP under its 2004 stock incentive plan. The exercise price would be equal to the market value of the share price on the grant date. The options will vest over eight years, but are considered fully vested only if HP’s share price rises by 40 percent or more. As of today that number of shares is worth $45.2 million.