Wojcicki, Brin Give $500,000 To Creative Commons

Doug Caverly — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:47:45 +0000

People who don’t really believe that Google wants to make the world’s information "universally accessible and useful" will, going forward, have a more difficult time arguing their point. Yesterday, Creative Commons announced that it’s received a $500,000 gift from Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin.

Wojcicki is the cofounder of 23andMe and Brin’s wife. And Brin, of course, is the cofounder and president of Google. One interesting question is exactly whose checkbook the donation issued from; a post on the Creative Commons blog always puts Wojcicki’s name first when naming the pair.

A relevant point is that Fortune pegged Brin’s net worth at $12 billion in mid-March.

But anyway, Melissa Reeder, a development manager at Creative Commons, responded to their donation by writing, "We are delighted that the couple recognizes the importance of Creative Commons and has decided to invest in our work to support sharing, collaboration, and the spread of knowledge and creativity."

Reeder then continued, "This gift – made in addition to the financial support that Google offers CC annually – will be used to support Creative Commons generally, with a focus on developing our Science Commons project, which Wojcicki and Brin are particularly excited about."

Mrs. Brin Gets Google Investment

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:19:03 +0000

Google has dropped some cash in Anne Wojcicki’s 23andMe biotech firm, to the tune of $3.9 million for a minority holding in the company co-founded by Sergey Brin’s new missus.

There are probably plenty of men who help their wives with their work. Very few are going to be able to match the generosity of Google’s co-founder, whose company gained a stake in 23andMe by writing a check with lots of digits before the decimal point.

MarketWatch picked up on the investment, as noted in an 8-K filing with the SEC that posted today.

Other details of the transaction showed Brin’s involvement with 23andMe before this investment:

Prior to Google

WebProNews » Anne Wojcicki

Wojcicki, Brin Give $500,000 To Creative Commons

Mrs. Brin Gets Google Investment