Google CEO Page Paid $1

By contrast to Page’s pay, Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman of the Board and former CEO, was paid a fortune. His 2013 package was valued at $19,323,380 in Google’s proxy. However, this is a small fraction of the $100,980,262 he made in 2011. Of that $$55,643,040 was a stock award for his years of service as CEO, a job he held from 2001 to 2011. Google hired him because of his level of management experience that the much younger Brin and Page did not have.

Schmidt’s role at Google  has not made him as rich as the two founders. In the latest version of the Forbes 400, Page is listed with a net worth of $24.9 billion, which places him 13th on the list. Brin sits in 14th place with a net worth of $24.4 billion. Schmidt is 49th with a net worth of $8.3 billion.

Google’s stock market success is nothing short of extraordinary. It market capitalization is $376 billion. Its share price has risen 40% in the last 12 months, much better than the 18.4% improvement in the S&P 500. That rate has also bested those of the two companies ahead of Google on the market cap list — Apple and Exxon Mobil Corp.(NYSE: XOM)

While Google has been criticized for being a single business company, this has not kept the company from extraordinary growth. During final quarter of  2013, revenue rose 17% to $16.86 billion. Net income rose from $3.38 billion, compared to $2.89 billion in the same period a year earlier. And most investors cheered Google’s decision to dump its Motorola smartphone hardware business, which had been eroding the company’s margins. On January 19, Google announced it would sell Motorola to Chinese PC giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Finally, Google shareholders have to be pleased by the fact that Page has so much confidence in the company’s future that he is willing to rely on the stock price alone for his financial compensation.