Eric Schmidt's security costs lag tech peers

Google's proxy statement revealed that CEO Eric Schmidt had total compensation of $557,466 in 2006 and nearly all of that was security services.

A small blogosphere ruckus has erupted because Schmidt received $532,755 for personal security in 2006. Schmidt's personal security cost much more than what was spent on Larry Page, whose compensation included $33,195 "for transportation, logistics and personal security during personal travel." Sergey Brin's must be really secure--he didn't cost Google anything in security. All three of those executives take a salary of $1.

Before you start wondering about Schmidt's security costs keep in mind he comes cheap compared to other executives.

Based on Footnoted.org's research (one of my favorite destinations) Oracle spent $1.8 million on Larry Ellison's "home-security related costs and expenses." Dell spent $1 million on Michael Dell's security. Disney spent $1 million on CEO Robert Iger's security. Amazon spent $1.1 billion on Jeff Bezos security.

Based on those aforementioned sums I think I'm in the wrong business--and Schmidt comes cheap. Other items mentioned in the Google proxy:

Shona Brown, senior vice president of business operations at Google, brought home $2.8 million in 2006, much of that sum came from options. George Reyes, CFO, had a salary of $1.72 million and David Drummond, chief legal officer, made $2.46 million. Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president, product management, made $2.6 million.