Larry and Sergey's credit denied
Larry Page and Sergey Brin got their credit card denied at an Ipanema restaurant this week. The Google boys had to pull out another card when their first choice couldn't pay a $50 meal charge. These guys just made over $2 billion from a stock sale, but they couldn't pay off the Visa? Maybe Larry Ellison's accountant could help them out or write them a note now and then.
A tipster says, "Terry Semel runs out of money too."
The first time I came face-to-face with Terry Semel (who I was working for at the time) was a couple years ago in the lunch line at the Yahoo cafeteria. He had his regular organic salad and special order organic fruit smoothie, and went to pay the checkout girl with his campus debit card. She swiped it and it came up empty. He'd run out of money.
Terry looked across at me — people line up on either side of the register, so we were facing each other — and gave me a very hollywood grin. I was about to offer to cover his lunch, and the checkout girl was trying to say that he didn't have to pay, when he pulled the most "I'm a billionaire" move possible: he reached into his pocket and retrieved a money clip with a few thousand dollars in crisp hundreds and paid for his meal.
