Google’s Brin and Page lose $17 billion, still take $1 salaries

March 26, 2008 | MG Siegler | Comments |

brinpageIn regulatory filings released Tuesday, Google revealed co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page alongside company chief executive Eric Schmidt took their traditional $1 salaries again this year (see page 49).

More interesting, though is that both Brin and Page lost some $8.5 billion off of their wealth in Google holdings due to the stock’s tumble this year, according to CNN Money, which did the math. Schmidt lost about $3 billion off of his wealth this past year.

At $450-a-share, Google’s stock is now around $300 off its peak price of $747.24 reached just in November of last year. The reason for the fall is partially due to Google failing to meet lofty expectations set by Wall Street, but likely has just as much to do with the weakness of the economy as a whole as well (our coverage). Many argued that a drop in clicks on Google ads meant big trouble for Google, but that was debunked a few days later (our coverage).

The $1 salaries make for good PR (Apple’s Steve Jobs takes home the same $1 a year) but mean little given how much wealth those in power at Google actually have. Even after the $8.5 billion loss each, Brin and Page are both still worth around $13 billion thanks to their holdings in Google. Schmidt comes in at a more modest $4.3 billion.

[photo: flickr/ehud]

Next Story: Local listings search engine Loladex launches on Facebook
Previous Story: BSG Alliance raises $50 million to expand next-generation business building operations

Bookmark and Share

Tags:

Photo of MG Siegler

About the Author, MG Siegler

MG Siegler writes about technology trends and new media for VentureBeat, with a focus on mobile topics, social elements and key news stories. Before that, MG wrote about technology on his blog, ParisLemon. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan where he studied film. He's previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where he did web development. He now lives in San Francisco.

  • Anthony Ha
    Man, what's the deal with those shirts?
  • Benoit
    What would be interesting to know is how much they are both worth not counting Google stocks. Or maybe when they eat out or go on vacation they pay using Google stocks, which reminds me of Dumb and Dumber and their briefcase of IOUs.
  • @anthony - yeah, must have been google founder gray shirt day.

    @benoit - that would be interesting to know, it seems like both of them sold very few shares last year so most of it is paper wealth no doubt. I like the Dumb and Dumber thought.