New York — In a short span of two months, Google has lost another junior member of its executive team — Douglas Merrill, Chief Information Officer at Google, is leaving the Internet search company to become a president of digital at EMI Music, the recorded music division of EMI Group, according to an executive briefed on his move.
The act was a head-scratcher, strange enough to be second-guessed as a hoax, especially given how different the music industry is from Google’s world.
A Google spokesman confirmed that Merrill is departing but said he could not verify the other information. A spokesperson for EMI Music Group declined to comment.
Merrill is the second senior executive to depart from Google in two months. In March, Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice president for global sales and operations, left to become chief operating officer at Facebook.
Their departures, in addition to those of quite a few high-profile engineers and senior managers in recent months, are heightening concerns that as the company grows in size and its stock swoons, it risks losing a larger number of important employees.
“It is very difficult to preserve the same kind of culture and energy that Google had as a startup,” said Scott Kessler, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor’s. “It is increasingly difficult for Google to be able to keep all the great people it has hired over the years. These people have a wide variety of great options at their disposal and a number of those people are seizing them.”
“The company brushed aside concerns that it was threatened by an employee exodus.”
“We have a deep bench and work hard to grow leaders within the company,” Google said in a statement. “We are attracting immensely talented people around the world, every day.”
Google spokesman Matt Furman confirmed on Tuesday that Merrill had left the Web search leader four years after joining the company. Merrill rose to manage all internal engineering and technical support globally for the Silicon Valley Company.
“We are grateful for his time and we wish him the best of luck,” Google spokesman said.
EMI’s music unit appointed Merrill as president of its digital business and he will remain based in California, the source said. The world’s fourth largest music label, based in London, is home to top selling artists, such as Coldplay, and is the distributor of the Beatles back catalogue.
Merrill’s know-how at Google, weighed along with Apple as one of the most innovative technology companies ever, can help EMI navigate the digital waters better. Traditionally, record labels have been slow to adopt technology and have completely missed the boat on e-commerce. Merrill will be crucial to evaluating technology and helping EMI create an Internet strategy.
“For EMI to hire someone from Silicon Valley will offer them a huge advantage over the label next door,” says Hab Haddad, vice president of business development at music management firm McGhee Entertainment, which represents rock band Kiss.
“It is a digital world and if the music companies cannot pull the heavyweights those have been successful in other industries they are never going to get it right for their industry,” Haddad says.
At EMI, Merrill will take on a newly created role, the executive briefed on his move said. He is likely to report to Guy Hands, the chairman of EMI and the chief executive of Terra Firma Capital Partners, the London-based private equity firm that bought EMI in September. The company is going through the middle of a wrenching restructuring that, among other things, will put more emphasis on digital distribution.
Merrill joined Google in 2003 as senior director of information systems. He was in charge for all internal engineering efforts and was occupied with several other technology projects, including initiatives related to the company’s I.P.O. and the introduction of Checkout, an online payment system.
Another high-ranking Google executive, the chief financial officer, George Reyes, announced last August that he would retire. At the time, Google said it hoped to find a replacement for him by the end of the year but has yet to appoint a new C.F.O.
“Merrill did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment. EMI Group declined to comment.”