New stock grant makes Google’s Pichai top-paid CEO

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai received a grant for 273,328 Class C Google stock units, worth about $199 million (Rs1,356 crore), according to a regulatory filing by Google parent company Alphabet Inc.

In addition to the 3 February grant for the stock units, the 43-year-old Pichai on the same day sold 375 Class A common shares at a price of $786.28 each, and sold 3,625 Class C capital stock at a price of $768.84 each, the filing said.

With the move, Pichai is set to become one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly-traded US firm this year. The new Class C shares he was awarded will vest in quarterly increments through till 2019, if the Google CEO remains at his appointed position.

According to Credit Suisse, the new shares put the value of Pichai's Alphabet holdings at approximately $650 million (Rs4,430 crore).

Bloomberg reported that according to its data, the award is the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer. It is also Pichai's first award since he took over as CEO in August 2015.

Bloomberg also notes the Alphabet filing revealed the company awarded $42.8 million (Rs291 crore) in restricted stock to Diane Greene, former CEO of VMware, who is in charge of cloud business since November.

Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet, was given $38.3 million worth of equity, according to the filing. The equity will vest under the same conditions as Pichai for Porat - in quarterly increments till 2019 if she remains on the job.