Scott Hassan, who is credited for writing much of the initial coding for Google, has been hogging the limelight for setting up a website to badmouth his ex-wife. Accused of “divorce terrorism”, the 51-year old Stanford alumnus reportedly dumped his wife of 13 years, Allison Huynh, over a text.

While the divorce happened seven years ago, the two are still battling over the division of billions of dollars of assets. A hearing of their case will take place in a San Jose (California) court today (August 30).

Who is Scott Hassan?

While Sergey Brin and Larry Page are famous worldwide as Google founders, Scott Hassan was also part of the team that shaped Google (BackRub then) in 1996. He was the head programmer who did coding for much of Google's original framework.

Hassan is also one of the key developers of Alexa Internet and the Stanford Digital Library. In 2011, Hassan founded Suitable Technologies, a company known for its teleconferencing robots. He sold the company to Denmark's Blue Ocean Robotics in 2019.

Hassan also founded eGroups, an email management portal, which was sold to Yahoo in 2000 for $432 million. At present, he heads Willow Garage, a robotics company.

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In 2006, Hassan also formed a limited liability company called Greenheart Investments. According to the company's regulatory filing in 2015, it was valued at more than $1 billion.

Even though Hassan never held any position in Google, he owns 1,60,000 shares of Google — which he had bought for US $800. Today, they are worth US $13 billion. Hassan's net worth is estimated to be over US $1 billion but the combined investments of the former couple are pegged at US $1.8 billion (as of 2018).

The divorce

The two had met through mutual friends at Stanford in 2000. Huynh, who immigrated to the United States from Vietnam after the war, attended Stanford on scholarship. They got married in 2005 and separated in 2015 after a few attempts at counselling. While Hassan said Huynh accused him of infidelity in front of kids, Huynh maintains that she had just asked about his whereabouts during long absences from the house. The couple have three children.

It has been reported that Allison Huynh, 46-year-old, is seeking 50 percent of the assets. Hassan attempted to enter into a post-nuptial agreement with Huynh, but in vain. Subsequently, he set up a website just to make embarrassing information from Huynh's past public.

She accused him of "divorce terrorism".

Hassan admitted to setting up the website in a New York Times interview saying, "I did, but I have taken it down. It came together in a moment of frustration when I felt Allison and her attorney were telling one-sided stories to the press."

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Hassan said it is beyond doubt that Huynh will become a 'woman of generational wealth' after the divorce case is resolved.

The entire episode is now being seen as the ugliest of Silicon Valley divorces.

First Published:Aug 30, 2021 12:26 PM IST