Google CEO Sundar Pichai awarded record $199M bonus in stock grant
The Google executive’s award is the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer, and his first since becoming CEO.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a restricted stock worth about $199 million (U.S.) on Feb. 3, the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer.
Google Inc.’s Sundar Pichai is poised to become one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly traded company this year after parent Alphabet Inc. awarded him restricted stock worth about $199 million (U.S.).
Pichai, who is Google’s chief executive officer, received 273,328 Class C shares on Feb. 3 that will vest in quarterly increments through 2019 if he remains on the job, according to a filing Friday from the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.
Pichai, the former deputy of Google co-founder Larry Page, was named to run the search engine unit following the reorganization into holding company Alphabet last year. The award is the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer whose equity grants have to be reported in filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is Pichai’s first award since taking over the company’s highest-grossing unit.
Alphabet also awarded $42.8 million in restricted stock to Diane Greene, a co-founder and former CEO of software maker VMware Inc., who’s led Google’s cloud business since November. Greene received equity worth $148 million last year after Google acquired tech company Bebop Technologies Inc., which she founded.
Chief financial officer Ruth Porat, who joined from Morgan Stanley last year, received equity worth $38.3 million that will vest under the same conditions as Pichai’s award, a filing shows.
An Alphabet spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google typically grants equity awards to executives once every two years, a strategy it has said “encourages executives to take a long-term view of the business.”
By: Anders Melin Caleb Melby Bloomberg, Published on Mon Feb 08 2016