Google executives get $1 salary

The three executives who run Google Inc. each got a salary of $1 (75 EUR) last year. But Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made up for it in the large stakes they own in the online search leader, which has made them billionaires.

Photo: Google executives get salary

Google executives get salary

Besides his $1 (75 EUR) salary, Schmidt, who was No. 116 on Forbes magazine's most recent ranking of American billionaires, received a bonus of $1,723 (1,290 EUR) and "other compensation" valued at $555,742 (416,224 EUR), according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Of his other compensation $532,755 (399,008 EUR) was for personal security.

Google's shares closed 2006 at $460.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up 11 percent for the year. The stock started at $85 when it went public in August 2004.

Schmidt, 51, owns 10,096 of Google's Class A shares and 10.7 million of its Class B shares. At the end of 2006, those securities were worth about $4.9 billion (3.67 billion EUR).

Brin, 33, and Page, 34, shared the No. 26 spot on the Forbes U.S. billionarie list, published in March. Each are worth $16.6 billion (12.43 billion EUR), according to the magazine's estimate. Brin beneficially owns 28.6 million of Google's B stock, which was worth about $13.2 billion (€9.89 billion) at the end of 2006. and Page owns 29.2 million shares, worth about $13.4 billion (10.04 billion EUR) at the end of the year.

In addition to their $1 (75 EUR) salaries, Brin and Page each received a bonus of $1,723 (1,290 EUR); of that, $1,000 (749 EUR) was a holiday bonus awarded to each Google employee. Page, whose title is president of products, topped Brin's $1,724 (1,291 EUR) compensation package with compensation valued at $38,519 (28,849 EUR). He received perks totaling $36,795 (27,558 EUR), which consisted of $33,195 (24,861 EUR) for transportation, logistics and security during personal travel and $3,600 (2,696 EUR) for personal travel using rental cars.

Google does not maintain executive retirement programs such as executive pension plans, deferred compensation plans or other executive retirement benefits.