Business

WATCH: Google’s Larry Page speaks for first time since losing voice

Google CEO Larry Page is talking publicly again.

The 39-year-old Mr. Page made his first public comments in several months when he appeared Tuesday at Google’s annual Zeitgeist conference in Paradise Valley, Ariz., where the Internet company hosts its business partners. Speaking with a raspy voice in front of an audience of several hundred people, Mr. Page spent more than half an hour addressing topics including Google’s dealings with antitrust regulators and the recent flap with Apple Inc. over maps software.

Mr. Page didn’t go into details about the undisclosed ailment that caused him to lose his voice earlier this year. Still, he touched on the topic when he said he was “still a little hoarse but I’m here and I’m happy about that.”

Google said in June that Mr. Page had lost his voice and wouldn’t be able to speak publicly till July, but declined to give details. The issue prompted several corporate governance experts to ask that the company speak up over the issue of a leader’s health.

Since then, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin have tried to make light of the situation. Mr. Brin at one point joked that Mr. Page is a “more effective CEO” because he wasn’t speaking much and had to be “thoughtful” about what he did say.

To read more, go to The Wall Street Journal