Who was it at Google who had the sense to clone Overture's business model, I wonder.
It was Omid. He put his job on the line and the company when he bet on AdWords.
An MBA. The average MBA isn't the kind of person you want, but a really bright MBA can be a game changer if they stay out of your hair.
Nope. Also, it's not a clone in any meaningful sense.
AdWords was invented by Eric Veach, formerly of Pixar, wasn't it?
What does it mean to invent a product? Adwords is just a name. The actual system was built and rebuilt and improved many times. Eric did do a lot to make it a success though -- he's part of the reason why Google makes so much more money than Yahoo.
I'm not sure how you managed to draw that conclusion. His bonus point is that the CTO didn't even do work, that's hardly engineer-driven. And they had a Stanford MBA, who was apparently a drain during product development.
Most successful technology startups are engineer-driven. Google is the ultimate example of just how far a couple engineers can go without any "business sense".