Google’s CEO to cash in $380M award this week
new york — Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai is about to have a very big week.
On Wednesday, an award of 353,939 restricted shares he received before a promotion in 2014 will vest. At the end of last week, the grant was worth about $380 million, making it one of the largest single payouts to a public company executive in recent years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Pichai, 45, who has led Alphabet’s Google since 2015, received the shares before his promotion to senior vice-president of products a year earlier, when he took over many of co-founder Larry Page’s responsibilities. The award swelled in value as Alphabet’s stock surged 90 per cent since the grant date, compared with a 39 per cent advance of the S&P 500. He has received two more nine-figure stock grants since then. The company has yet to disclose Pichai’s compensation for 2017. Winnie King, a spokeswoman for the Mountain View, California-based company, declined to comment.
In 2016, CEOs of S&P 500 companies realised an average of $16.2 million from shares that vested or exercising stock options, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Other tech executives have received hefty payouts in the past. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reaped $2.28 billion when he exercised 60 million options as part of the company’s initial public offering in August 2012. Months later, restricted shares worth $822 million held by his deputy Sheryl Sandberg fully vested.