Does anyone know if these types of $100M numbers are actually true? I think it makes a great headline but wouldn't everyone at senior ranks get packages like this making it unsustainable?
It does seem likely that some tricks were involved to arrive at a sensational number.
But if Google pays an average engineer on the order of $100,000 , this is 1000 times the average annual salary as a one time bonus.
That seems exceptional, certainly, but not completely insane.
On the flip side, it might keep a certain type of engineer for bolting for a startup. Even the most optimistic entrepreneur knows the odds of a $100 M payday are pretty much non-existent.
Google is a 258B market cap company (as per yesterday's closing price). They can afford to give hundreds of these packages, even if they diluted the stock, without moving the needle too much.
It's only paper, and Google is under the spotlight for anti-poaching collusion. This story makes them look like in-demand workers benefit from their policies rather than the worker just laboring away unaware that other companies have already agreed with Google not to try to hire him away.
How many people do you think are VP's at Google? A few hundred at most? $X million per year is normal for a big co VP. This isn't like a bank were every teller or saleman is called VP.
He is a One-percenter at the top of the Google pyramid.
