Eric Schmidt might have stepped aside as Google's CEO, but the move has certainly been lucrative for him—he's gotten a huge raise. His salary just jumped massively from the traditional $1 a year, the same as co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to $1.25 million, according to a recent SEC filing.
Schmidt hasn't walked away from the company completely. As of April 4, he officially made the transition to become Google's executive chairman. In this new role, Schmidt can make up to $6 million a year. That's a $1.25 million base salary with a target bonus of 400 percent.
However, even before the SEC filing was made public, it was clear that Schmidt wouldn't be hurting for cash. He recently unloaded $335 million worth of Google stock. Even after this sale, he still owns 8.7 million shares, which are valued at $5.45 billion.
Now that Page has taken over as Google CEO, Schmidt allegedly has his eyes on some ventures that could fill his bank account even more. It's been rumored that President Obama could make him the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Schmidt is also reportedly shopping a book deal to New York publishers. There's also buzz that the former CEO is trying to score his own show on CNN.
Schmidt announced in January that he would cede his position to Page after 10 years at the helm of the Internet giant. Regardless of his next step, it appears Google has opted to reward Schmidt for his decade of service to the company.
Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383853,00.asp
