Eric Schmidt Net Worth - Pulptastic

Eric Schmidt, an American businessman and philanthropist, has a net worth of $23 billion. He is best known for his role as the former CEO of Google, where he took over from the companys founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in 2001.

What is Eric Schmidt’s net worth and salary?

Eric Schmidt, an American businessman and philanthropist, has a net worth of $23 billion. He is best known for his role as the former CEO of Google, where he took over from the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in 2001.

Schmidt successfully guided Google through its IPO, and remained the CEO of the company until 2011. He then served as Chairman and Technical Advisor until 2020.

Notably, Schmidt is part of a small group of individuals who became billionaires as employees of companies they did not found. This includes Meg Whitman of eBay, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, and Tim Cook of Apple.

Early Life and Education

Eric Schmidt was born in Washington D.C. in 1955 and spent his childhood in Blacksburg, Virginia. He attended Yorktown High School, and went on to earn a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University. He continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his MS, and then went on to earn a PhD in EECS. Schmidt also worked as a part-time professor at Stanford Business School.

Eric Schmidt’s Career History

Eric Schmidt held positions with Bell Labs, Novell, the Palo Alto Research Center, Zilog, and Sun Microsystems prior to joining Google. At Sun, he worked his way up from Director of software engineering to Vice President and GM of Sun Microsystems’s software products division. During his time at Novell, he served as the chairman of the board and the CEO.

Eric Schmidt’s Career at Google

Eric Schmidt was interviewed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin during a crucial Pre-IPO period of Google’s establishment. He became the CEO in 2001 and served until 2011. Upon stepping down, Eric received a $100 million equity award.

When Eric was initially hired, he was given a base salary of $250,000 along with 14,331,703 Class B shares of the common stock at $0.30 per share. He also received 426,892 shares of Series C preferred stock at $2.34 per share.

Eric served as the Executive Chairman until December 2017, after which he announced his complete departure from the company, where he had spent 17 years. However, he remained a Technical Advisor until 2020.

Eric Schmidt’s Time on Apple’s Board of Directors

During his time on Apple’s Board of Directors from 2006 to 2009, Eric Schmidt was privy to the company’s plans for the iPhone and iOS operating system. However, he would recuse himself from meetings that discussed Apple’s mobile ambitions to avoid giving a competitor too much inside information.

Despite a handshake agreement between Eric and Steve Jobs that Google would not pursue a mobile operating system or phone, Google began talks to acquire Android around the same time. When Jobs learned of Google’s plans, he was outraged and promptly removed Eric from Apple’s board.

Eric Schmidt’s Involvement in Recruiting Scandal at Google

Eric Schmidt, during his time at Google, was involved in a recruiting scandal that later became the subject of the High Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation case. The case resulted in a $415 million settlement being paid by Google, Intel, Apple, and Adobe to their employees.

One incident that came to light through the litigation was when Steve Jobs sent an email to Schmidt complaining about a recruiter from Google reaching out to an Apple employee. Eric forwarded the email from Jobs to Google’s HR department with a note expressing his belief that they had a policy of no recruiting from Apple and asking for the recruiter to be terminated. The Google recruiter was terminated “within an hour.”

Eric Schmidt’s Ownership of Google (Now Alphabet)

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and current board member of Alphabet, owns approximately 1.3% of the company. He also holds around 4.3 million shares of Class C Alphabet stock. Over the past ten years, Eric has sold roughly $3.5 billion worth of his Google stock.

Eric Schmidt’s Political Activism

Eric Schmidt, the former Chairman/CEO of Google, has been heavily involved in politics. He supported both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and during Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign, he essentially acted as a staff member. Schmidt was even photographed backstage at what was supposed to be Clinton’s election night victory party wearing a Clinton “staff” badge.

Eric Schmidt’s Personal Life

In 1980, Eric married Wendy Susan Boyle and they had two daughters, Alison and Sophie. Unfortunately, their daughter Alison passed away in 2017. Sophie is the founder of a technology journalism endeavor called Rest of the World.

Eric and Wendy officially separated in 2011, but they still purchase homes and pursue philanthropic endeavors together.

Recently, in November 2020, it was reported that Eric was in the process of acquiring citizenship from the small island of Cyprus.

Eric Schmidt’s Real Estate Purchases

In September 2020, Eric and Wendy paid $31 million for a mansion in Montecito, California. The couple acquired the former Beverly Hills estate of hotel tycoon Barron Hilton for $61.5 million in May 2021, and in January 2021, Eric purchased the home next door for $5 million to create a three-acre private compound.

In mid-January 2022, Eric paid $65 million for an undeveloped plot of land high atop Beverly Hills. The 120-acre property, known as “Enchanted Hill,” was previously owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who bought it for $20 million in 1997. Eric’s daughter Sophie also got in on the real estate action, purchasing a hilltop estate in Beverly Hills for $22 million in October 2021. The estate is just a five-minute drive from Enchanted Hill, and coincidentally, the mansion directly across from Sophie’s house was Paul Allen’s longtime LA home.

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