Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 543 posts

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

#381

Post by jalapenos »

andrewstuart wrote: post #59

I simply don’t see what good this CEO has done. He’s destroyed googles reputation with developers. Destroyed customer trust in Google products. Done nothing to fix googles reputation for terrible customer service. Led Google to third place in cloud computing. AND been thrashed by Microsoft / ChatGPT, putting Googles core business at risk. Why is this guy CEO?

He's done great good: for himself, stuffing his wallet. He's played the game well, squirrelling his way to the top, and siphoning off his fill.

For all the Alphabet stuff, and hiring the smartest engineers on the planet, I've yet to hear of a single Google breakthrough beyond their search. They're still just ad salesmen.

Only other useful things they've done that most people would be aware of is refining Microsoft's email/office software into the SaaS age, and making a popular map app. That's great, but no breakthrough.

Now OpenAI's going to kneecap them. Who searches for lists of potential sources of answers when ChatGPT just gives you them? They're fucked.

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

#382

Post by pwpw »

dopamean wrote: post #370
pwpw wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the CEO and CFO sign off on the financial statements, they assume an extraordinary amount of risk. If there is fraud occurring in the financial reporting of their company, they will be severely disciplined. I suggest reading up on Sarbanes-Oxley Section 302[0] and the Enron[1] and WorldCom[2] accounting scandals. Sarbanes-Oxley was issued as a response to the aforementioned scandals and lays out the bulk of the…

At Enron and Worldcom the CEOs were committing fraud. They brought that in themselves. It wasn't a "risk" they assumed. This is a bit of a ridiculous statement.

I’m not discussing the CEOs from those scandals. I’m discussing the ramifications of the scandals that have been passed onto present day CEOs. The GP asked what risk current CEOs assume. I linked them directly to Section 302 of Sarbanes-Oxley, which is the authoritative body on risk that a CEO assumes for a publicly-traded company in the US.

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

#383

Post by 1024core »

ada1981 wrote: post #236
elliekelly wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe the smartest people have decided money isn’t everything?

People with the highest IQs tend to NOT be the highest income earners, likely for this reason.

That's how I console myself.... ;-D

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

#384

Post by pclmulqdq »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #252
andrewstuart wrote: post #59

I simply don’t see what good this CEO has done. He’s destroyed googles reputation with developers. Destroyed customer trust in Google products. Done nothing to fix googles reputation for terrible customer service. Led Google to third place in cloud computing. AND been thrashed by Microsoft / ChatGPT, putting Googles core business at risk. Why is this guy CEO?

> He’s destroyed googles reputation with developers. He has? How did he do that? Literally, curious, first I've heard of it. > Led Google to third place in cloud computing. You don't need to be number 1 to make a profit. > AND been thrashed by Microsoft / ChatGPT, putting Googles core business at risk. I suspect you think google search is their core business. When it's ads. Also, just because Microsoft is ahead just…

I think you may underestimate how much ads is dependent on search. Google ads is an attractive place to buy ads (as opposed to the n + 1 other web ad exchanges) because of the ability to place ads on Google search through that platform. If search and YouTube weren't dominant in their market, there would be no reason to choose to use Google ads as opposed to a cheaper ad exchange.

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

#386

Post by chaostheory »

rcme wrote: post #378
chaostheory wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You anti-work guys are again showing your ignorance. A large chunk of techie compensation is in stock.

What difference does it make what form the compensation is in? Is your argument that because employees receive stock that they somehow have enough voting power to influence company policy? That’s laughable.

> Now, layoffs are widespread, compensation is way down, while all the profits go to shareholders.

People who own stock are shareholders

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

#387

Post by sangnoir »

morelisp wrote: post #339
Fricken wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sundar was chosen following a series of failures by megalomaniacal executives Larry had appointed/approved to head various departments, including Andy Rubin, Tony Fadell, and Anthony Levandwoski. Sundar was a move in the opposite direction.

Don't forget Vic. It's somewhat amazing how many failed, some nearly sociopathic, almost-CEOs Google had.

Ironically, Vic was was empowered to counter a similar panic an upstart more formidable than OpenAI. He brought a bold vision alright, but that's not sufficient to be a good leader.

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

#388

Post by AlbertCory »

sainez wrote: post #364
AlbertCory wrote: post #359

Sundar is an example of what happens when you promote from within and rule out anyone with enemies. You get nice guys whom everyone "likes." The comment about sociopathic almost-CEO's is spot on. Tony, Andy, Anthony, and Vic all would have been terrible CEO's. On the other hand, Bill Coughran, Alan Eustace, Udi Manber, or Patrick Pichette would have been decent, at the very least. Maybe even very good.

Off topic. But huge shout out to Udi Manber for one of my favorite CS books: Introduction to Algorithms, A Creative Approach.

I didn't even know he wrote that.

Here he is, introducing Bob Mankoff, the longtime cartoon editor of the New Yorker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kogikw3InpY

I helped out on this talk, but Udi apparently knew Bob somehow, so he introduced him.

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

#389

Post by AmericanChopper »

lupire wrote: post #351
AmericanChopper wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was ~$55 in March 2020, and most recently closed at $105. But the two key points you seem to be missing are: 1. Not all incentive packages are tied to share price. Many of them are tied to other metrics that the (shareholder elected) board decide are appropriate. This is where the bulk of Pichai’s comp comes from. 2. When they are tied to share price, they tend to be benchmarked. In this case Pichai’s share price…

When you picked the moment of the worldwide Covid crash as your reference point, you are telling everyone that you are not trustworthy. Riding the wave of market alpha is not an accomplishment.

It’s no worse than picking a market high preceding an ongoing recession as a reference, as the parent commenter did. The point is that his stock performance incentives are not tied to the absolute value of the stock, as the parent commenter is mistakenly claiming. Most of his performance based incentives don’t even relate to stock price, as the parent commenter is also mistakenly claiming. But the ones that do are tied to the stock’s performance against a benchmark. That benchmark has had the same ups and downs as the rest of the market, and Google’s stock has been tracking against it very well. Something that is an achievement, and that’s what google’s shareholder elected directors decided to reward him for with performance based incentives.

These are very simple concepts, and while you can be forgiven for not already knowing them, aspiring to retain your ignorance certainly isn’t admirable.

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

#390

Post by abraxas »

jalapenos wrote: post #381
andrewstuart wrote: post #59

I simply don’t see what good this CEO has done. He’s destroyed googles reputation with developers. Destroyed customer trust in Google products. Done nothing to fix googles reputation for terrible customer service. Led Google to third place in cloud computing. AND been thrashed by Microsoft / ChatGPT, putting Googles core business at risk. Why is this guy CEO?

He's done great good: for himself, stuffing his wallet. He's played the game well, squirrelling his way to the top, and siphoning off his fill. For all the Alphabet stuff, and hiring the smartest engineers on the planet, I've yet to hear of a single Google breakthrough beyond their search. They're still just ad salesmen. Only other useful things they've done that most people would be aware of is refining Microsoft's…

The so coveted Transformer architecture came out of Google for one...

I don't like what Google has become but I can't deny them the amazing work that both DeepMind and Google Brain have done over the years.

Post reply on HN