Live data from Hacker News

Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

bloomberg.com

241–250 of 543 posts

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#241
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remind me again how big-co CEOs assume "all the risk"? I have never once heard anyone make this claim.

It's a claim repeated very frequently around here when people criticize exorbitant compensation packages for execs. For instance, see [0] below by fallingknife. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35665329

That's not what that comment says, it says there are massive risks in REPLACING a CEO, it says nothing about risks the CEO is taking.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you define "several years"? Google's revenues are at all-time highs, and still growing (albeit slowly). Seems pretty far from anything drying up...

Nokia sold about $50Bn worth of phones in 2007, another $50Bn in 2008. They made an enormous amount of money long after it was obvious to everyone their business was in massive decline.

iPhone 3G came out in summer of 2008. While Blackberry was doing very well versus Nokia, it was certainly not obviously in massive decline long before summer 2008. Perhaps the original iPhone in summer 2007 alerted people in the business, but still, that is just 1 year before. Until then, Nokia's smartphones were still considered among the top of the line.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing he has done is not destroy the Google cash firehose. The advertising cash firehose is perhaps the only thing that matters at Google. But, having been severely caned by ChatGPT and left flat footed on AI i think it’s reasonable to say even that firehose is now at risk.

It’s really funny to read this over and over from so many people. You are saying google can’t match and surpass chatGPT? You know, google the people who invented the model architecture used by ChatGPT… the people who wrote the first ML training frameworks and the subsequent most popular one… the ones who designed hardware accelerators to minimize training and inference… the people with enough excess compute to probab…

70s: "You are saying GM can't match and surpass Toyota for small cars?"

etc.

history is littered with the dominant player getting shellacked by an upstart

And it usually is for political reasons not technical reasons.

Bard is a piece of shit. It's probably being held back so that it doesn't compete internally with google search

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so to paraphrase, he is a bean counter.

I think he cares deeply about the company and its mission, he just lacks the ability to be a bold and decisive leader. This can be a good thing in some cases (he is good at building consensus for example), but can also be harmful.

Sounds like he's more suitable to be 2IC (eg 2nd in charge, not the leader) then?

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#245
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe you shouldn’t comment on something you know barely anything about? Very weak counterpoint, essentially ad personam, trying to insinuate my ignorance, telling me to shut up. Not impressive.

Yes, having a counterpoint with a relevant data point that you missed is “weak” you are ignorant, making your argument weak and just plain wrong. Should people no longer point out when comments are really wrong? You’re also over generalizing while being completely incorrect ie making shit up

You didn't provide a "relevant data point". The base salary for an L3 (rank-and-file) SWE in the Bay Area (which is one of the highest paid areas in the US) is 140K on levels.fyi. You've compared this to the total comp which includes stock (that tanked recently), and a bonus (which isn't guaranteed). You're asserting that you're right and I have no idea what I'm talking about baselessly and being agressive and rude. I don't need to engage with that, nobody does.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#246
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he cares deeply about the company and its mission, he just lacks the ability to be a bold and decisive leader. This can be a good thing in some cases (he is good at building consensus for example), but can also be harmful.

A quick Google (natch!) suggests that the company mission is: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Does he "care deeply" about this? If we look at the direction they've taken in recent years, and the products they've launched (and/or killed) - how many of them demonstrate a "deep care" about this mission? How many of them are even tangentially related to this mission? (…

I don’t find the world information on Google when I search.

Gmail works much better. It does, indeed, organize the world’s information, the world’s private and corporate information.

But the only who can really search through it is the CIA. Maybe we’re not the real customers ;)

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#247
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the past 4 years, GOOG's net income and earnings per share have fallen quite a bit. Revenue has been pretty flat. I don't get why Pichai is so well paid. Ballmer actually did preside over some impressive growth when he was CEO of MSFT. Pichai has not. Edit: I was looking at the wrong numbers. Google's profit has roughly quadrupled in the 8 years Pichai has been CEO. His compensation makes a lot more sense in tha…

Ballmer made bets on the windows phone, Zune, Bing (ads) etc in a bid to strengthen the moat around windows/Office. Most of these bets didn't pay, the strategy to build stuff to protect your core business does stymie company growth. I think Google has gotten itself into a similar position that Microsoft was in circa 2012.

How is Google in a Microsoft position? Ballmer made wasteful acquisitions like Skype and Nokia, and wasted 3 years trying to compete with the iOS by building 2 separate ARM operating system (Windows RT, Windows Phone) only to kill them both and revert focus to the x86 Surface line.

Google hasn't done antything like that. Their product discontinuations have mostly been for niche applications.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#248
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if hiring them in the first place was the mistake? What are your options in that case?

CEO fucked up, get rid of him/her. Why'd you hire so many people if you don't need it? Sounds like C-suite made the wrong call, in that case.

Getting rid of someone because of a fuck up is amateur leadership (or politics to appease the mob). The relevant question is whether or not a decision was appropriate, given the information and parameters at the time of making the decision.

No one is perfect.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#249
post #174
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being the smartest person in the room doesn’t necessarily mean than they’re a great leader.

right , but neither does being appointed CEO.

Really? First you’ve convinced them of hiring you as a CEO.

Re: Sundar Pichai received $226M compensation, boosted by a triennial stock grant

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One benefit is stronger labor protection from layoffs like these. Having labor be more powerful can also help when execs push for morally questionable projects. Lastly, FAANG employees are working class.

if you’re earning sky high base comp + stock + benefits at these places you’re not working class. You are incredibly out of touch.

A regular family home with 4 bedrooms near the office is $3M or more. If you have to save aggressively for 10 or 20 years to own a home close to work, then you are at best working class.
Post reply on HN