Google has paid a staggering bonus of $100 million to Indian-American executive Neal Mohan, just to keep him from accepting a job at Twitter.
Mohan is the man in charge of display ads for Google. He launched and developed the company’s approach and execution for that side of Google’s business. According to Business Insider which carries an excellent detailed profile of Mohan, He has a “special ability to understand what’s newly possible thanks to technology, and how this might be applied to serve a business strategy.”
He is expected to bring in an estimated $7billion for Google this year.
The report added that the bonus had come just as Mohan was on the verge of accepting an offer by Twitter to become chief of product in 2011.
A report in TechCrunch estimated that he was paid $100 million then, and Business Insider says that given the current value of Google stock, those shares are probably worth around $150 million today. The stock options will fully vest in three years.
Mohan graduated from Stanford in 1996 and worked for Accenture and NetGravity, before the latter was acquired by DoubleClick.
According to Daily Mail, “a private equity firm bought the company for $1.1billion and the CEO hired Mr Mohan to help rehabilitation. About 18 months later, after Mr Mohan implemented an aggressive plan to streamline and focus the business, Google bought it for $3.1billion.Since then, he has overseen Google’s acquisition of start-up companies to help bolster Google’s ad market.”
He reportedly also has a free rein to develop the display ad business as he sees first.
Business Insider had also collected a number of descriptions about Mohan from his co-workers who said things like, “He’s not a screamer or a big table-banger” and “”He doesn’t bullshit. If our numbers were going bad, I heard from him”. His clients were equally impressed saying things like “”He is the quiet assassin. He’s not a big show-boater.”