Google Execs Bring Home Meager Paychecks In 2008

Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, along with the other Co-founders at the California-based Internet giant, Google, each took home a meager one dollar paycheck last year, according to a filing with US regulators, the Associated Free Press accounted. 

The executive trio, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Schmidt maintained their standard one-dollar annual paychecks even though the tight economy has depleted billions of dollars from their Google stock holdings. 

Google commented in a proxy statement, “Eric, Larry and Sergey have voluntarily elected to receive only nominal cash compensation,” filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. 

“Their primary compensation continues to come from returns on their ownership stakes in Google.”

Further, the Google commanding trio did not receive bonuses either. 

The filing indicated that Page owns about 29.2 million shares of Google stock while Brin holds 28.6 million shares, making them top holders of stock in the firm and granting the pair controlling interest. 

Brin, age 35 and Page, age 36 began Google while still Stanford University students.
 
In 1998, Google became incorporated and the duo has taken a mere dollar each in annual pay since 2004 when the company went public with a stock offering. 

Owning just under 9.4 million shares, Schmidt takes third place in stakes in the company. 

Close to a half million dollars was compensated to Schmidt in 2008, however most of that money supported his security and some travel expenses. 

Trading price for Google stock closed on Tuesday a tad bit above 347 dollars per share. 

The stock sky-rocketed to almost 700 dollars a share in 2007, but plummeted along with the rest of the market in 2008. 

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