Posted on 02/19/2014 3:48:30 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
Big paydays on Wall Street often come under laserlike scrutiny, while Silicon Valley gets a pass on its own compensation excesses. Why the double standard?
Take Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive and current chairman of Google. Google’s compensation committee last month awarded Mr. Schmidt $100 million in restricted stock plus $6 million in cash. The stock vests in four years and comes on the heels of a $100 million award made in 2011.
When asked for comment, a representative of Google directed me to the regulatory filing Google made disclosing Mr. Schmidt’s compensation award. The filing states the award was paid “in recognition of his contributions to Google’s performance in fiscal year 2013.” How about that for detail?
Mr. Schmidt already owns shares worth billions of dollars in Google, and has a net worth of more than $8 billion, according to Forbes. So the latest award amount is just a few ducats to him.
As chairman, Mr. Schmidt does make a substantial contribution to Google, including helping the company negotiate a settlement with the European Union in an antitrust case. But his pay is extraordinarily high for a chairman. The typical director at a Standard & Poor’s 500 company was paid $251,000 in 2012, according to Bloomberg News. Mr. Schmidt is above that range by over $100 million.
Still, the pay award was greeted with few questions and apparently no criticism from Google’s shareholders or others. Compare this with the continued outcry over Wall Street executive pay.
The latest was the criticism of Jamie Dimon’s pay for 2013, given the many regulatory travails of his bank, JPMorgan Chase. The bank’s board awarded Mr. Dimon $20 million in pay for 2013, $18.5 million of which was in restricted stock that vests over three years.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
What drivel, Silicon Valley produces things . If you don’t buy stuff companies die and go away. As the saying goes Farewell Honeychild.
Wall Street as currently composed produces nothing but greed
Yup—Silicon Valley is one of the few place in America where real product innovation is going on. Wall Street is all about innovation of elaborate Ponzi schemes. In Silicon Valley, everyone wins; on Wall Street, only the house wins.
Something to remember is that the Silicon Valley is currently running on H1B labor, priced to shove out Americans.
So that puts some perspective, to me, at least, to the massive salaries of the Tech Elite here.
The latest was the criticism of Jamie Dimon’s pay for 2013, given the many regulatory travails of his bank, JPMorgan Chase. The bank’s board awarded Mr. Dimon $20 million in pay for 2013, $18.5 million of which was in restricted stock that vests over three years.
Poor guy. How is he going to pay the paper boy?
The latest was the criticism of Jamie Dimon’s pay for 2013, given the many regulatory travails of his bank, JPMorgan Chase. The bank’s board awarded Mr. Dimon $20 million in pay for 2013, $18.5 million of which was in restricted stock that vests over three years.
Poor guy. How is he going to pay the paper boy?
Complain about Google’s leftist bent all we will (and it’s quite marked at times, what with the rainbow everything that they give us from time to time, something that doesn’t even express the wishes of most homos), they’re getting their fortune from good old capitalism, and that in such a way that the common user of their common services pays nothing, save for some eyeball time on advertisements.
I know this for an absolute fact. I retired from a large company with nearly half a million in restricted stock options. The value of the stock went down, and I got zero!
Speaking of drivel... got any idea where those companies obtain the capital to build and expand their business?
Its just that those guys are more often than not liberals.
The whole issue is as phony as obama; its what passes for enlighenment amongst the liberati.
IMO, speaking from a shareholder perspective, the vesting should occur after 5 or 10 years for these executives, not 3. Long-term thinking is good for the company and shareholders, short-terms is not.
So many FReepers have no clue how capitalism works and are just as envious as most Marxists.
Pray America wakes up
Since the author doesn’t know what he’s talking about, it’s not clear to me what he means by “vest” either. Restricted stock options can have a waiting period before which they can be exercised, and a time period during which they can be exercised. I wouldn’t be surprised if Schmidt had a waiting period of three years before he could exercise them and that’s what the author called “vesting”, and a longer time during which he could exercise them. It’s not worth it to me to waste my time researching the topic to find the answer. You generally don’t expect a significant gain in only three years for an established company. Google’s P/E ratios are so bad already that it’s not realistic to expect very much upward price movement, unless it’s situation drastically changes.
You are correct but, perhaps, a bit mild. Wall Street is a casino. Nothing more and nothing less. It has been a long time since it was of much use for anything other than manipulating money.
This is one of their most successful tactics.
precisely. yo are singing to the choir
Not from Wall Street. In fact their is a thriving venture capital business in Silicon Valley. They are not Wall Street.
Nice try though
i pray for our country daily. We live in dangerous times
And you said that very well
Where do VC firms keep their money? Under their mattresses?
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