page's argument is that waymo as a whole was successful, so waymo as a whole got paid a lot. because levandowski was an early waymo employee and pretty senior,

page's argument is that waymo as a whole was successful, so waymo as a whole got paid a lot. because levandowski was an early waymo employee and pretty senior, he had a large 'stake' in waymo's bonus payout. however - and this is page's big point - that payout has little to do with his overall contributions to the project, and rather that he had early responsibilties and stuck around.