Google CEO Gets Nine-Figure Pay Package
According to this Bloomberg article, Google's CEO took home nearly $200 Million in 2016. This isn't his first time taking home a nine figure salary either; he's achieved this three years in a row. This seems like an exorbitant amount in my opinion. Rarely do you hear of executives taking home this kind of change; even other large F500 companies. Definitely mad about it, but it's just hard to fathom that amount of money.
The chief executive officer of the search-engine unit received $199.7 million in compensation for 2016, according to a regulatory filing Friday. That marks his third straight year getting nine-figure pay -- a rare accomplishment even at well-paying technology companies and virtually unheard of in other industries.
Pichai’s 2016 compensation consisted mainly of 273,328 Class C shares that vest quarterly through 2019 if he remains on the job. The award was granted about six months after the tech business announced it would reorganize into holding company Alphabet. As part of the transition, Pichai was tapped to lead Google, taking the reins from Larry Page who became chief executive of the parent entity.
What do you think, is he worth it?
That is so absurdly awesome
Indeed.
He has done well enough as CEO that the owners of the company (shareholders) wish to compensate him with such an amount. Congratulations to him, congratulations to Google shareholders for owning such a productive company, and congratulations to humanity for the benefits that a company like Google has given us.
It's not that crazy when you think about it in relation to Google's size. $634 Bn market cap / $200M = a little over $300k per $1 Bn market cap. The average CEO of that range is easily pulling $1-2M in most years. Then add that this is all stock, so fully incentivizing him to create shareholder value, makes sense
For leading a company like Alphabet? Fuck, he's earned it. Alphabet is killing it.
He's leading Google, Larry Page is leading Alphabet.
---->"Is he worth it ?"
That's a question best answered by GOOGL shareholders. They don't seem to mind. If you or I do mind, nobody cares.
While you can always say "let the shareholders vote", is this always true?
For all Alphabet shareholders other than Sergey Brin and Larry Page, even if they disagree with the pay to Google's CEO, do you think they will actually sell the stock? I doubt it though.
If they don't sell their stock then they ARE voting. Shareholders may not agree with every decision made, but their role isn't to micromanage a company.
I think this is obscene and frankly doesn't make any sense. I believe CEO's should be well compensated and it's a very competitive market but in light of that I don't understand how it makes sense from a competitive perspective to have someone make so much more than most others. I appreciate it doesn't make a huge difference to Google but if he was paid $100M or $150M I don't think he's going to leave and the firm has saved a couple of pennies. It might be a function of my experience but I find philosophically comp is meant to be just enough to keep you.
In terms of rationalizing it relative to the company size I don't think that makes sense either. That mentality leads to empire building where if I just merge my company I get paid twice as much and I keep doing that until I have a huge POS company that doesn't make any sense and subsequently gets broken up / sells assets.
Out of pure curiosity, do you think Ken Griffin should take in $1.6bb?
It's a private company so he's effectively paying himself. The board of Alphabet has a fiduciary duty which has no equivalent in Ken Griffin's case as he doesn't have to answer to anyone. Pichai is a very important and valuable employee which is very different than owning your own company.
So...I'm confused...you have no material issue with his pay, but you object on principal? That makes less than no sense. How does it affect you, or anyone else?
I have no issue with it being, say, $100M but I don't understand why it needs to be $200M. $100M would stack up pretty well and he deserves that as he has done a great job.
And yes, you're right, it doesn't impact me directly. OP didn't ask how it affects people though, he asked what people thought, so I said what I thought.
Shareholder Perspective: I don't think shareholders care whether its $150 million or $200 million - as long as shareholders feel satisfied with company performance relative to CEO pay.
Societal Perspective: In the end, CEO pay is largely arbitrary and is thus subjective. Is 1 million enough, 2 mill, how about 10? There are plenty of people who get multi-million dollars because of arbitrary negotiations - think of top athletes negotiating contracts or top actors negotiating how much they get paid per film. Would you rather have the CEO of google (who is one the top CEOs in the world) get less than people like Christiano Ronaldo or Johnny Depp? Why did Floyd Mayweather make $285 million, why can't it be $200 million?..... see what i mean. Regardless, you can think of Sundar Pichai as a top athlete or celebrity, a superstar who has a lotta of negotiating power.
He's earned it. Period. If you want to complain about CEO pay, think about John Stumpf at Wells Fargo, or Meg Whitman, or Marissa Meyer.
Can't complain 100% deserves it imo
Never disparage reward if there's merit. (no matter how much the reward is levered).
Kids who get 6 or 7 figure inheritance cash in the laps. Well that's another story.
Definitely worth it. Or at least those who matter think he's worth it. Either way, good for him and I look forward to Google's continued innovation.
"deserve" doesn't come into it.
It comes down to the shareholders, if they are happy to pay that's on them.
I don't own shares but if I did I would be absolutely pissed! I would believe he should be paid enough to keep him motivated to stay and do the best job possible...anything in excess of that is charity. I don't believe the necessary number is anywhere near $200m.
So how exactly is one supposed to find out the exact number amount that keeps him "motivated".....and doing "the best job possible"?
Since everyone born after 1990 owns their school/uni grades (which led to jobs) to google/wikipedia/stackoverflow I would say he deserves it. I also owned their shares for some time but didn't hold till today, if I would, I would be totally ok with his comp, however it's worth to notice that the market gets more ridiculous every day. Maybe there is some indicator reflecting total CEO's pay / market cap, could be forward looking to some extent.
Of course! He's the one we are on this forum, right? Google makes thing work and He is the one who makes it work! legit enough.
Large amount, but Google has been killing it in the recent past (and still today). I think Eric Schmidt also deserves a lot of credit for laying the bases of what eventually became Alphabet (and must be smiling at the value of his shares).
First rule in life: don't worry about what other people are making, unless 1) you're a shareholder in the company; 2) you're a taxpayer and we're discussing public employees. In the Western world we've got an entire ideology focused on being pissed off at what someone else is paid, and going around being pissed off about some other person's salary isn't a good way to live.
With that said, if Pichai were to die today, the stock would slump for about a week or two and life would go on--he's replaceable; Elon Musk, on the other hand, is an irreplaceable CEO to Tesla. So yeah, it's kind of nuts to pay a non-founding CEO $200 million for something someone else could do reasonably well (let's be honest--Google search engine is running on autopilot), but if it bothers a shareholder enough he/she can sell their stock.
I will never understand people who care that much about what someone else makes. Let Pichai get his and keep your nose out of his bank account. Focus on yourself.
He is definitely worth it.
HAHAHAHA..... this thread is particularly humorous now.
Everyone goes on about how he deserves it and he's worth it but his only real job given his company owns the market is to not fck anything up and now he has to write a fairly significant check.
Question is if I get such huge amount what can I do?
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