Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt to be awarded $100 million

Google Inc’s outgoing CEO Eric Schmidt is receiving a $100 million equity award by Google, as he hands over the reins to co-founder Larry page, trusted sources informed.

According to sources, it is the first such award which Schmidt is obtaining since he joined Google in 2001; he will get stock units and options which shall vest over a period of four years.

The announcement of Larry Page taking over from Schmidt came as a surprise to the world where the former will handle full-fledged operation as CEO from April this year, sources reported. With Google reporting very high earnings for the last quarter, the news created more hype than expected.

 Schmidt plans to sell about 534,000 shares of Class A common stock; meaning he would continue to hold 8.7 million shares of Google stock and control 9.1 percent of the company's voting power compared to 9.6 percent in December-end 2010.