Eric Schmidt takes $1.45bn of his Google bet off the table There are two ways to interpret the news that Eric Schmidt is going to sell $1.45bn worth of Google shares this year – his biggest annual disposal yet and first big sale in four years. Either he thinks the stock is looking pricey again or he is cutting some of his ties with the company. Mr Schmidt’s stock sale, disclosed late on Friday, will see him shed 2.4m shares – that’s more than a quarter of his remaining stake. True, he’s already sold 5.7m shares since Google went public seven and a half years ago, but there are a couple of things that make this latest sale stand out: - This is his first ... Continue reading →

There will be business school case studies written about the different ways that HP has paid its recent CEOs (and plenty more on why it has had so many, but that’s a different story.) It seems finally to have got the formula right. With Meg Whitman’ s pay deal, HP’s board has taken a stand against the general meritless escalation in CEO pay in America – and not just because of the $1 a year base salary it will give her. Ms Whitman’s deal has been written with performance very much in mind and should be taken as a model by other companies. Not only is virtually all of her remuneration tied to things improving for HP shareholders (there is no guaranteed pay-out on her ... Continue reading →

Mark Zuckerberg faces a tax liability of more than $1.5bn this year, vaulting the Facebook co-founder into the leagues of all-time highest taxpayers and leaving a big question mark over his company’s initial public offering. The taxes will fall due on a vast profit of nearly $5bn that Mr Zuckerberg, 27, plans to take on stock options he was handed in 2005 for acting as Facebook’s chief executive. MoreOn this storyOn this topicIN TechnologyWhile not putting a figure on the amounts at stake, Facebook said this week that Mr Zuckerberg would exercise the options before its initial public offering, which is expected to take place in May, and sell enough shares in the IPO to cover the tax bill on his profits. He has never ... Continue reading →

Hide map and return to photo At Twitter HQ, Jack Dorsey accesses my account and sees paucity of tweets. Will he talk to me again?? Continue reading →