Agencies Posted online: Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 1141 hours IST Updated: Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 1157 hours IST
San Francisco, April 9: The trio of billionaires who run - and own much of - online search engine leader Google Inc reduced their individual salaries to USD 1 last year and rejected a recent attempt to give them a raise, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and the company’s Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, dramatically lowered their salaries last spring - right around the time that the mountain view-based company filed its plans for a much-anticipated initial public offering of stock that made their pay checks largely irrelevant.
Before the concessions, Google paid Page and Brin an annual salary of USD 150,000 apiece. Schmidt collected a USD 250,000 annually before lowering it to a buck. In the months leading up to the pay cuts, Page and Brin each collected USD 43,750 of their former salaries while Schmidt pocketed USD 81,432, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Foregoing a regular paycheck isn’t difficult for Brin, Page and Schmidt because they own two-thirds of the company's highly prized stock.
Page and Brin each own a 27.8 per cent stake worth USD 7 billion while Schmidt's 10.6 per cent stake is worth USD 2.7 billion.
Schmidt apparently isn’t having trouble making ends meet. In February, he bought a corporate jet that he leases to the company for USD 7,000 per hour - a below-market rate, according to the company's evaluation. Google has agreed to reimburse Schmidt up to USD 2.1 million this year for using his jet.
