The year is starting on a great note for some of Alphabet/Google top executives who are to receive stock awards and are also getting a salary boost.
A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the company’s board has approved new compensation packages for some executives, namely, finance chief Ruth Porat, search chief Prabhakar Raghavan, chief business officer Philipp Schindler and legal head Kent Walker.
In 2021, Alphabet delivered huge returns for its investors. In fact, Alphabet was the top-performing big tech company of 2021. Many companies around the world were hugely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and the global shortage in chips, among other factors that hindered operations this year. Alphabet, irrespective of these challenges, proved to be stronger than the pandemic and the recent bout of inflationary concerns.
According to the filing with the SEC which became available on the SEC website on Tuesday but was dated December 28th, the executives’ salaries will increase to $1 million from $650,000. These executives individually received stock awards valued at between $23 million and $35 million.
In 2021, Alphabet’s stock soared more than 65 percent, far beyond any other US big tech company. Up 51 percent last year, Microsoft is Alphabet’s biggest contender. Apple followed suit; the tech titan soared 33 percent. Meta, which was formerly Facebook, stood at 23 percent and Amazon at 5 percent. We can also decide to add Tesla which soared 51 percent this year.
Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings surpassed the estimates of analysts. The tech giant recorded a 43 percent increase in advertising revenue to $53.1 billion and an increase in YouTube ad sales to $7.2 billion.
Thanks to a lack of reliance on Apple and its control over the Android operating system (OS), the company escaped the effects of Apple’s privacy changes to its iOS which companies like Facebook and Snap were left at a disadvantage as a result.
The company experienced a surge in advertising and travel and its search business rebounded rapidly from the pandemic-induced decline.
Search chief Prabhakar Raghavan and chief business officer Philipp Schindler received the biggest stock award packages for 2022. They each were granted $12 million in performance-based stock that will vest between 2022 and 2024 on the basis of how the share price performs compared to members of the S&P 100. They also received an additional $23 million in restricted stock that will vest quarterly in 12 instalments.
Finance chief Ruth Porat and legal head Kent Walker received $5 million in performance-based equity and $18 million in restricted stock each.
The filing also added that these executives will be eligible to participate in a maximum of $2 million annual bonus program “based on contributions to Google’s performance against social and environmental goals for 2022”.
