Google Grants $100 Mln Equity to Eric Schmidt

Search giant Google (GOOG) said it will award $100 million worth of equity to Eric Schmidt, who will step down as the company's chief executive in April to make way for co-founder Larry Page.

Consistent with Google's equity-granting practice, stock options and Google Stock Units (GSUs) will be granted in the ratio of two stock options for each GSU, which will result in a GSU grant value of approximately $55.6 million and an option grant value of approximately $44.4 million, Google said in an SEC filing.

The equity awards, which will be granted on Feb. 2, 2011, will vest over a four-year period.

The exact number of units comprising the equity award will be calculated by dividing the GSU grant value by the closing price of Google's Class A common stock on Feb. 1, 2011. The exact number of stock options comprising the equity award will be calculated by dividing the option grant value by 40 percent of the closing price of Google's Class A common stock on Feb. 1, 2011. Both equity awards will be rounded up to the nearest whole share.

Larry Page, who founded Google along with Sergey Brin, will take the reins from Eric Schmidt, who has been holding that position since 2001.

All the three executives have limited their salaries to $1 for several years. However, the three own majority of Google stock.

Schmidt will be the Executive Chairman of Google, entrusted with several responsibilities including improving government relations. On the other hand, Sergey Brin will focus on strategic projects, in particular working on new products.

Shares of Google were up $1.32 at $613.15 in Monday's pre-market trading on Nasdaq.