Google stingy with top management
Google Inc. pampers its employees with free food and many other perks, but the online search engine leader is more stingy when it comes to rewarding the trio of billionaires who run the company.
In a meeting held earlier this month, Google’s board decided not to give 2004 bonuses to the company’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, or its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to documents filed Wednesday by the Mountain View-based company.
The men, who consult on most of Google’s key decisions, each received a $1,566 holiday bonus besides their salaries, which are modest compared with most high-profile companies. All Google workers received the same holiday bonus last year. Schmidt collects a $250,000 salary while Brin and Page each receive $150,000 annually, according to disclosures made as part of Google’s closely watched initial public offering of stock.
The wealth created in that IPO ensured Google’s three top executives would never have to work again, if they so desired.
All three men rank among the world’s richest men. Brin and Page each are worth $7.2 billion, while Schmidt is worth $2.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s most recent wealth survey.
MCI extends talks with Qwest
Long-distance telephone company MCI Inc. decided Wednesday to extend talks with Qwest Communications Inc. on its $8.45 billion bid to break up MCI’s merger agreement with rival Verizon.
Verizon Communications Inc., whose deal to acquire MCI is currently worth $1.9 billion less than Qwest’s bid, has consented to MCI’s request for a waiver to conduct further discussions, MCI said in a statement following a board meeting held Wednesday.
MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, said it instructed its advisers and management to reopen the talks “promptly.”
But the company declined to say how long it will take to decide whether it still sees the lower price Verizon is paying as justified due to Qwest’s far weaker financial condition and prospects.
EU investigating scaled-down Windows system
European Union regulators are examining complaints that Microsoft Corp. intentionally engineered a scaled-down version of its Windows operating system so it wouldn’t work as well with rival products.
An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Microsoft rivals are charging that the version, stripped of Microsoft’s music and video player at the EU’s behest, might not work as well with other software.
The EU antitrust office, however, said tests were ongoing.
A year ago, Microsoft was ordered to produce a version of Windows without a media player to European customers after regulators ruled that Microsoft abusively wielded its Windows software monopoly to lock competitors out of the market. Microsoft also was fined a record $665 million and ordered to share some software blueprints. The Redmond-based company is appealing.
Dave Stewart, deputy general counsel with Seattle-based RealNetworks Inc., said the proposed version of Microsoft’s scaled-down Windows system removes technology that makes it easy for media files to play from within another product, such as a PowerPower or Word document.