INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Alphabet Inc's newly instated Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai would receive a hefty $240 million in performance-based stock awards
over the next three years, the highest ever promised to any executive of the search giant.
Pichai would also take home $2 million in annual
salary starting 2020, according to a regulatory filing on Friday
That compares with a $1 salary received by Larry Page in the same role last year
"In terms of grants related to CEO appointments, it's behind Tim Cook's grant of $376 million when he took over Apple," said Amit
Batish, marketing manager at Equilar, a firm that tracks executive compensations.
Google co-founders Page and Sergey Brin stepped down
earlier this month as leaders of the internet behemoth they founded 21 years ago, giving Pichai charge of the parent company in addition to
his role as the chief of Google.
Trusted lieutenant Pichai, who has spent 15 years at Google, is now the public face of a company that is
facing criticism from United States lawmakers as well as its employees over a number of issues ranging from privacy to monopoly.
When he
took over as Google's chief in 2015, Pichai drew an annual salary of $652,500
The following year his earnings skyrocketed, thanks to a massive $199 million in stock awards, the highest ever for any Alphabet executive
back then.
Pichai is widely credited for making the Google chrome browser a success and was seen as a potential successor to Microsoft Corp
CEO Steve Ballmer before Satya Nadella took over in February 2014.
According to the most recent proxy statement from the company, Pichai
earned nearly $1.9 million in 2018, which mostly included the costs for his security and personal use of aircraft
His base salary that year was $650,000.
Median CEO base salary reached $1.2 million among the largest United States companies by revenue in
2018, according to Equilar.