Google's Brin Splits With Wife

A Silicon Valley power couple have split after six years of marriage. A rep for Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki tells AllThingsD the two "have been living apart for several months. They remain good friends and partners." They have two children. They aren't legally separated, but the news gets more convoluted from there in Liz Gannes' telling. She reports that Brin has been romantically linked with a Google employee, and writes that "while this is obviously sad and very personal news, it also has many business implications."

Gannes isn't referring to Brin's fortune (pegged at $22.8 billion), which is largely in the form of Google stock; he and Wojcicki had a pre-nup. It's the rumored affair that could spell trouble. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, affairs with subordinates can "raise legal liabilities." An employment attorney runs down the potential issues; among them: other employees could cry favoritism, or allegations of being forced into the relationship could turn into a lawsuit. Also complicating things: The woman in question (IDed by Valleywag as 26-year-old Amanda Rosenberg) was reportedly previously dating another Googler, top Android exec Hugo Barra, who is leaving the company (sources tell AllThingsD the move is unrelated to Rosenberg).