100 million award for Google8217;s Schmidt

The Mountain View,California-based company said the equity awards approved by Google8217;s board of directors will be granted to Schmidt,who has been earning a token salary of USD 1,on February 2 and will vest over a four-year period.

Google shares were down 0.73 per cent at USD 607.36 in early trading on Wall Street today.

In a surprise announcement on Thursday,Google said Page,37,would replace the 55-year-old Schmidt as CEO on April 4. Schmidt will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Last week,Google outlined a pre-arranged one-year trading plan for stock in the company held by Schmidt.

Google said Schmidt intends to sell approximately 534,000 shares of Class A common stock,worth some USD 327 million at Friday8217;s closing price,over the next year taking his holding in the company down to 2.7 per cent.

Google said that as of December 31,Schmidt held approximately 9.2 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock,2.9 per cent of Google8217;s outstanding stock and 9.6 percent of voting rights.

According to Google,co-founders Page and Sergey Brin held 57.7 million shares of Class B common stock as of January 22,18 per cent of Google8217;s outstanding stock and 59 percent of the voting power.