CORRECTED - Google's executive billionaires take $1 salaries

Thu Apr 5, 2007 3:18pm EDT
 
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(Corrects current values of executive share holdings in paragraphs seven and eight)

SAN FRANCISCO, April 4 (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O) paid its top three executives a token 2006 salary of $1 each for the third year running, and bonuses of $1,723 a piece, according to the company's annual proxy filed on Wednesday.

The funny-money pay-package belies the source of the wealth of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt, who together own 56.1 percent of the voting stock of Google, which has a market capitalization of nearly $150 billion.

In the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Web search leader said Schmidt received further compensation of $532,755 for personal security. The report did not detail the nature of the security costs. Another $22,456 went to offset taxes on aircraft chartered for Schmidt for Google business where family or friends flew along, it said.

Page received other compensation of $33,195 for transportation, logistics and personal security during personal travel and $3,600 for personal travel using rental vehicles.

The three had requested during the second quarter of 2004 -- in the run-up to Google's initial public offering -- that the company cut their salaries to $1. The spectacular success of Google's IPO turned each of them into billionaires.

Previously, both Brin and Page had been paid a salary of $150,000 a year, while Schmidt received $250,000 in salary.

Based on the $471.02 closing price of Google stock on Wednesday, Page held Google shares worth $13.75 billion, or 28.2 percent of the voting share of the company. Brin owned Google shares worth $13.5 billion, or 27.7 of voting shares.

Schmidt, who joined the company in 2001, three years after its founding, owned shares worth $5.0 billion, or 10.3 percent of the voting power of the company, according to the proxy.

The figures are for shares held by the executives March 1.

Google's annual shareholder meeting is scheduled to be held at the company's Mountain View, California headquarters the afternoon of May 10th, the filing said.

 

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