Google gives CEO Sundar Pichai record $199 million in vested stock

Stock grant makes him one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly traded company this year

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, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

Pichai, who took over in August as Google’s chief executive officer (CEO) from co-founder Larry page, received a grant for 273,328 Class C Google stock units on February 3. The valuation is based on the stock's closing price on that date, Bloomberg reported.

On the same day, the Google CEO sold 375 Class A common shares at a price of $786.28 each, and sold another 3,625 Class C capital stock at a price of $768.84 each, the filing said.

According to the Bloomberg data analysis, this is the most lucrative award ever given to a Google chief executive.

The Class C shares can be availed in quarterly increments through till 2019, provided Pichai stays in his position till then.

The report further said that the India-born American has been appointed to his position for at least three years.

It is not uncommon for Google to award executives restricted stock about once every two years in a bid to motivate them and to incentivised them to take a long-term view of the business.

Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, was given $38.3 million worth of equity, according to the filing. Her equity will vest under the same conditions as Pichai - in quarterly increments till 2019 if she remains on the job.

In an another report by Financial Times (FT), which said that along with other stock handouts, the latest award lifts the value of Pichai’s personal stake in the company to $650m, making him one of the tech world’s richest non-founders. 
 

His wealth, however, pales besides that of Eric Schmidt, the outsider who was Google chief executive in the company’s early days and is now executive chairman, the FT added. Schmidt’s shares are worth $3.2bn.

The pay deal for Pichai caps an escalation in stock awards made by the search and advertising giant in recent years. It switched from making more modest annual grants to large awards once every two years, besides staggering the vesting schedule on the stock so the shares become available over a four-year period.