9 ms·

It doesn’t make sense to me that Satya Nadella makes 10x less than Sundar Pichai. Last I saw Satya made about 20M and Sundar was making 200M. Given Microsoft pe

It doesn’t make sense to me that Satya Nadella makes 10x less than Sundar Pichai. Last I saw Satya made about 20M and Sundar was making 200M. Given Microsoft performance vs google I don’t get it.

gigatexal 7y ago
At some point enough money is enough. "Mo' money, mo' problems" said Biggie. And salary isn't the whole point, perhaps he has some really, really nice golden parachute or is hoarding options, I dunno.
phkahler 7y ago
Why does anyone make 200M at a publicly owned company?
- valleyjo 7y ago
  Don’t know. Seems absurd to me. There’s no way Sundar contributes 10x more value. Or anything even close to 200M IMO
  - justaguyhere 7y ago
    Maybe Sundar is better at negotiating his salary than Satya? Can't think of any other logical reason
    - bthrn 7y ago
      "It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." -Satya Nadella
      - zaroth 7y ago
        He was rightly skewered for that comment. Biggest load of pure bull I’ve heard in a while. You don’t get what you deserve. Often you don’t get what you ask for. You get only what you demand through persistent and effective negotiation. This is true for a lot of things in life, but it is particularly true for engineering salary. If your point was, perhaps his salary is so “low” because he actually believes what he said then you may be on to something.
  - reallydontask 7y ago
    I think it's fair to say that compensation is unlikely to be correlated with the actual value brought to the business. At best, correlated with perceived value by whoever sets the salary, in this case the board?
  - noahl 7y ago
    Are you suggesting that Google try to poach Satya Nadella? :) I would give a lot to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
    - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
      Not saying it could never happen, but in addition to being the architect of a renaissance at one of the biggest, must well-known companies in the world, Satya is also a mcrosoftie from pretty much birth. I think it would take a lot more than gobs of money to make him jump.
- peaktechisnow 7y ago
  not apples to apples. 200M is likely the value of an options grant to be earned over multiple years. $20M for satya is likely an annual comp figure.
- nicoburns 7y ago
  Why does anyone make 200M? IMO literally nobody contributes enough value to society to outweigh the negative externalities of one person controlling so much wealth.
  - ps101 7y ago
    Income isn't tied to contribution to society though. And that's okay.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - IggleSniggle 7y ago
      It’s true and probably unavoidable, but that doesn’t make it “okay”
      - eclipxe 7y ago
        It's okay to me.
        anm89 7y ago
        I'll second this. The idea of having some government comittee or mob deciding my value to society and then taking what they feel is undeserved is infinitely scarier than some people doing disproportionately well. And let's be clear, there is no other way to implement a policy like this because the criteria is totally subjective.
        nicoburns 7y ago
        > And let's be clear, there is no other way to implement a policy like this because the criteria is totally subjective. There is a way to implement this in an objective way. Simply heavily tax everybody who earns over a threshold amount. No judgement about what it is that they are doing. It doesn't matter.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- zaroth 7y ago
  You make $200M when without you the company would be significantly more than $200M less profitable. Here we have someone of tomorrow they went to the Board and said, “I’m going to need $200M a year in comp to stay on” they would be insane to turn him down. If you look at what Microsoft has accomplished under Nadella’s leadership, the level of operating profit and growth, he should absolutely be worth $200M to Microsoft and shareholders of Microsoft. It’s not about the number of hours you work. There is a non-linearity when someone can look at a situation and see a solution, or devise a plan, or organize a strategy, or forge a partnership, or foresee an acquisition, that without that person in that position, the company would miss out on potentially $Billions of opportunity. You pay a lot of money if you can get the right person in the room to make those company-crucial decisions correctly.
libria 7y ago
To his credit, Pichai rejected significant stock awards [1]. Seems genuine to me, though I wonder what Mrs. Pichai's face looked like when he floated it heh. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/05/30/sundar-pichai-google-stock-awards-goog.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/05/30/sundar-p...
gridlockd 7y ago
> Given Microsoft performance vs google I don’t get it. Doesn't it make total sense? Microsoft didn't get to the top by spending money foolishly.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
I wouldn’t worry too much about Nadella. He is probably doing very well financially.

It doesn’t make sense to me that Satya Nadella makes 10x less than Sundar Pichai. Last I saw Satya made about 20M and Sundar was making 200M. Given Microsoft performance vs google I don’t get it.

gigatexal 7y ago

At some point enough money is enough. "Mo' money, mo' problems" said Biggie. And salary isn't the whole point, perhaps he has some really, really nice golden parachute or is hoarding options, I dunno.

phkahler 7y ago

Why does anyone make 200M at a publicly owned company?

valleyjo 7y ago
Don’t know. Seems absurd to me. There’s no way Sundar contributes 10x more value. Or anything even close to 200M IMO
- justaguyhere 7y ago
  Maybe Sundar is better at negotiating his salary than Satya? Can't think of any other logical reason
  - bthrn 7y ago
    "It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." -Satya Nadella
    - zaroth 7y ago
      He was rightly skewered for that comment. Biggest load of pure bull I’ve heard in a while. You don’t get what you deserve. Often you don’t get what you ask for. You get only what you demand through persistent and effective negotiation. This is true for a lot of things in life, but it is particularly true for engineering salary. If your point was, perhaps his salary is so “low” because he actually believes what he said then you may be on to something.
- reallydontask 7y ago
  I think it's fair to say that compensation is unlikely to be correlated with the actual value brought to the business. At best, correlated with perceived value by whoever sets the salary, in this case the board?
- noahl 7y ago
  Are you suggesting that Google try to poach Satya Nadella? :) I would give a lot to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
  - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
    Not saying it could never happen, but in addition to being the architect of a renaissance at one of the biggest, must well-known companies in the world, Satya is also a mcrosoftie from pretty much birth. I think it would take a lot more than gobs of money to make him jump.
peaktechisnow 7y ago
not apples to apples. 200M is likely the value of an options grant to be earned over multiple years. $20M for satya is likely an annual comp figure.
nicoburns 7y ago
Why does anyone make 200M? IMO literally nobody contributes enough value to society to outweigh the negative externalities of one person controlling so much wealth.
- ps101 7y ago
  Income isn't tied to contribution to society though. And that's okay.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - IggleSniggle 7y ago
    It’s true and probably unavoidable, but that doesn’t make it “okay”
    - eclipxe 7y ago
      It's okay to me.
      - anm89 7y ago
        I'll second this. The idea of having some government comittee or mob deciding my value to society and then taking what they feel is undeserved is infinitely scarier than some people doing disproportionately well. And let's be clear, there is no other way to implement a policy like this because the criteria is totally subjective.
        nicoburns 7y ago
        > And let's be clear, there is no other way to implement a policy like this because the criteria is totally subjective. There is a way to implement this in an objective way. Simply heavily tax everybody who earns over a threshold amount. No judgement about what it is that they are doing. It doesn't matter.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
zaroth 7y ago
You make $200M when without you the company would be significantly more than $200M less profitable. Here we have someone of tomorrow they went to the Board and said, “I’m going to need $200M a year in comp to stay on” they would be insane to turn him down. If you look at what Microsoft has accomplished under Nadella’s leadership, the level of operating profit and growth, he should absolutely be worth $200M to Microsoft and shareholders of Microsoft. It’s not about the number of hours you work. There is a non-linearity when someone can look at a situation and see a solution, or devise a plan, or organize a strategy, or forge a partnership, or foresee an acquisition, that without that person in that position, the company would miss out on potentially $Billions of opportunity. You pay a lot of money if you can get the right person in the room to make those company-crucial decisions correctly.

libria 7y ago

To his credit, Pichai rejected significant stock awards [1]. Seems genuine to me, though I wonder what Mrs. Pichai's face looked like when he floated it heh. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/05/30/sundar-pichai-google-stock-awards-goog.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/05/30/sundar-p...

gridlockd 7y ago

> Given Microsoft performance vs google I don’t get it. Doesn't it make total sense? Microsoft didn't get to the top by spending money foolishly.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

I wouldn’t worry too much about Nadella. He is probably doing very well financially.