Google CEO, co-founders to get $1 salary for third straight year
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AP) - The three billionaires who run online search leader Google Inc. will settle for a $1 salary again this year while four other top executives will receive raises of $200,000 (euro153,000) apiece, according to documents filed Monday.
It marks the third consecutive year that Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have limited their salaries to a $1. It is a sacrifice that they can afford because they have gotten rich off their large stakes in Google, whose stock price has more than quintupled from its initial offering price of $85 in August 2004.
Page and Brin are each worth about $14 billion (euro10.7 billion) while Schmidt's fortune stands at $5 billion (euro3.82 billion), according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's wealthiest people.
The salaries of four other Google executives are climbing from $250,000 (euro191,000) in 2006 to $450,000 (euro344,000) this year.
They are: Robert Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research; Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development; Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management; and George Reyes, the company's chief financial officer.
Google also gave the same four executives bonuses totaling $829,912 (euro634,344) for their 2006 performance. Schmidt, Page and Brin did not receive bonuses.
Separately, Schmidt provided investors and analysts with another upbeat assessment of Google's prospects.
Speaking Monday at a technology conference in San Francisco, Schmidt said Google's experience during the last economic downturn in 2001 and 2002 indicated customer-starved advertisers are likely to pour even more money into the search engine to take advantage of the company's technology that identifies potential buyers.
Worries about a slowing economy have contributed to a 4 percent decline in Google's stock price so far this year. Google shares rose $2.27 Monday to close at $440.95 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then added another $2.16 in extended trading. - AP
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