Google Inc said on August 28 finance chief George Reyes plans to retire, ending a bumpy five-year ride for an executive charged with trying to manage ferocious growth while upholding a policy of refusing to give financial forecasts.
As chief financial officer, Reyes, a veteran Silicon Valley financial executive, worked out of the public spotlight in a company led by its two co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and its chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt.
Reyes, 53, helped spearhead the initial public stock offering of the world's top provider of Web search and online advertising services in August 2004. The stock has risen fivefold in the three years since then.
But Google investors received a shock in July when a surprise 13 percent jump in second-quarter hiring and rising operating expenses led to a rare profit disappointment.
The stock, which traded upward of $550 in mid-July, has declined since then, closing at $506.40 on Tuesday.
"They need a higher-caliber CFO, many people on Wall Street will tell you," said Martin Pyykkonen, a financial analyst with Global Crown Capital. "He had a couple of snafus."
Pyykkonen said the recent quarter had exposed a lack of internal financial controls that could have helped to rein in Google's aggressive hiring and averted the disappointment.