Agreed. However, "improper secret management" does not accurately describe Levandowski's actions, and one could argue that he did abuse his power at the expense of others.

Theft to me is loss of wealth to the victim.

Saying "hey lets hook up or you won't get that promotion" is also loss of wealth and personal embarrassment so to me it's roughly equal with a bit of a bias against Rubin. But they acquired Android and he probably had some deep legalese and contracts preserving his golden parachute, can't really claw those back unless some really bad news comes out.

Sorry if this seems completely wacko to you but that's how I see it.

Both are ugly.

sure, but (unfortunately) the shareholders probably don't unless the resulting judgments cost more than the hypothetical IP was worth.

Why hate Levandowski cause he stole from Google.. umm Google steals intellectual property itself https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929

They were made for each other and probably he saw the theft that goes on there and then stole from them.