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女按摩师在Google公司工作五年后成百万富翁
11月12日消息 据美国纽约时报报道，一位女按摩师1999年应聘成为Google公司内部按摩师，工作5年后其通过职工优先认股权获得的股票价值已达数百万。
报道介绍称，1999年，BonnieBrown女士从一次失败的婚姻中脱身，和她的姐妹住在一起，不知未来在何处。抱着试试看的心理，她回复一个招聘Google内部按摩师的广告，接受一个半日制工作，每周薪水450美元，还有一大堆Google职工优先认股权，她起初认为这些股票永远也值不了一美分。
在为Google工程师捏了5年背后，Brown女士退休了，她的股票价值数百万美元。现在她住在内华达州的一座3000平方英尺的豪宅内，有自己的按摩师和私人教练。
报道指出，虽然至今还没有正式统计过Google的百万富翁，但据估计可能有1000多人从股票赠与和优先认股中平均每人获得价值500万美元的股票。
原文来自The New York Times
Google Options Make Masseuse a Multimillionaire
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 11 — Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark,she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google,then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees. She was offered thepart-time job, which started out at $450 a week but included a pile ofGoogle stock options that she figured might never be worth a penny.
After five years of kneading engineers’ backs, Ms. Brown retired,cashing in most of her stock options, which were worth millions ofdollars. To her delight, the shares she held onto have continued toballoon in value.
“I’m happy I saved enough stock for a rainyday, and lately it’s been pouring,” said Ms. Brown, 52, who now livesin a 3,000-square-foot house in Nevada, gets her own massages at leastonce a week and has a private Pilates instructor. She has traveled theworld to oversee a charitable foundation she started with her Googlewealth and has written a book, still unpublished, “Giigle: How I GotLucky Massaging Google.”
When Google’s stock topped $700 ashare last week before dropping back to $664 on Friday, outsideshareholders were not the only ones smiling. According to documentsfiled on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Googleemployees and former employees are holding options they can cash inworth about $2.1 billion. In addition, current employees are sitting onstock and unvested options, or options they cannot immediately cash in,that together have a value of about $4.1 billion.
Although noone keeps an official count of Google millionaires, it is estimatedthat 1,000 people each have more than $5 million worth of Google sharesfrom stock grants and stock options.
One founder, Larry Page, has stock worth $20 billion. The other, Sergey Brin,has slightly less, $19.6 billion, according to Equilar, an executivecompensation research firm in Redwood Shores, Calif. Three Googlesenior vice presidents — David Drummond, the chief legal officer; ShonaBrown, who runs business operations; and Jonathan Rosenberg, whooversees product management — together are holding $160 million worthof Google stock and options.
“This is a very rare phenomenonwhen one company so quickly becomes worth so much money,” said PeterHero, senior adviser to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, whichworks with individuals and corporations to support charitableorganizations in the region. “During the boom times, there were lots ofcompanies whose employees made a lot of money fast, like Yahoo and Netscape. But the scale didn’t approach Google.”
Indeed,Google has seemed to exist in its own microclimate, with its sharesclimbing even as other technology stocks have been buffeted by investorskittishness. The stock touched an all-time high of $747.24 on Tuesdaybefore falling more than $83 a share during the week to close at$663.97 on Friday. But even after that sell-off, the stock has risenmore than 44 percent, or $203 a share, this year.
The days arelong gone when people like Ms. Brown were handed thousands of Googleoptions with the exercise price, or the pre-determined price thatemployees would pay to buy the stock, set in pennies. Nearly half ofthe 16,000 employees now at Google have been there for a year or less,and their options have an average exercise price of more than $500. Butthose who started at the company a year ago, or even three months ago,are seeing their options soar in value.
Several Google employeesinterviewed for this article say they do not watch the dizzying climbof the company’s shares. When it comes to awareness of the stock price,they say, Google is different from other large high-tech companieswhere they have worked, like Microsoft, where the day’s stock price is a fixture on many people’s computer screens.
AtGoogle, the sensibility is more nuanced, they say. “It isn’t considered‘Googley’ to check the stock price,” said an engineer, using the Googlejargon for what is acceptable in the company’s culture. As a result,there is a bold insistence, at least on the surface, that the stockprice does not matter, said the engineer, who did not want to be namedbecause it is considered unseemly to discuss the price.
Others admit that, when gathered around the espresso machine it is hard to avoid the topic of their sudden windfalls.
“It’svery clear that people are taking nicer vacations,” said one Googleengineer, who asked not to be identified because it is also not Googleyto talk about personal fortunes made at the company. “And one of theguys who works for me but has been there longer showed up at work in areally, really nice new car.”
The rise in Google’s stock isaffecting the deepest reaches of the company. The number of optionsgranted to new employees at Google usually depends on the position andthe salary level at which the employee is hired, and the value isusually based on the price of the stock at the start of employment.
The average options grant for a new Google employee — or “Noogler” —who started in November 2006 was 685 shares at a price of roughly $475a share. They also would have received, on average, 230 shares of stockoutright that will vest over a number of years.
The Nooglers might not be talking about second homes in Aspen orpersonal jets, but they are talking about down payments on a firsthome, new cars and kitchen renovations. Internal online discussiongroups about personal finance are closely read.
Google, like manySilicon Valley companies, gives each of its new employees stockoptions, as well as a smaller number of shares of Google stock, as arecruiting incentive.
The idea of employment at a place with sucha high stock price is appealing, but it can also make the company lessattractive to a new hire. Jordan Moncharmont, 21, a senior at Stanford University who was given stock options after he started working at Facebookpart time, said Google’s high stock price can be a disincentive to aprospective hire as it translates to a high exercise price for options.“You’d have to spend a boatload of cash to exercise your options,” hesaid.
Mr. Moncharmont said he did not join Facebook to get rich, though he knows his Facebook options could make him wealthy someday.
WhenMs. Brown left Google, the stock price had merely doubled from itsinitial offering price of $85. So Ms. Brown is glad she ignored theadvice of her financial advisers and held onto a cache of stock.
Asthe stock continues to defy gravity, Ms. Brown, whose foundation hasits assets in Google stock, can be more generous with her charity. “Itseems that every time I give some away, it just keeps filling upagain,” she said. “It’s like an overflowing pot.”
The wealth generated by options is giving a lot of people like Ms. Brown the freedom to leave and do whatever they like.
RonGarret, an engineer who was Google’s 104th employee, worked there for alittle more than a year, leaving in 2001. When he eventually sold allhis stock, he became a venture capitalist and a philanthropist. He hasalso become a documentary filmmaker and is currently chroniclinghomelessness in Santa Monica, Calif.
“The stock price rise doesn’t affect me at all,” he said, “except just gazing at it in wonderment.” |
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发表于 2007-11-13 03:09:11
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