That seems just like opinion. Some data: My wife works in HR (not at Google, but in tech and other industries), and has handled things like executive compensat

That seems just like opinion. Some data: My wife works in HR (not at Google, but in tech and other industries), and has handled things like executive compensation/retention/etc. She has done many of these types of situations over the years. She was doubtful they would have been able to pay him nothing. I've also seen a bunch fly by on the legal side over the years, and most (but not all) that i've seen would have paid out something in a case like this. Best guess as to the 90 million was that it was not about this, but stock payout in exchange for not competing with google for a while or something.