Google Inc., fresh off announcing a management shake-up, will give a $100 million equity award to Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who in April will be succeeded by company co-founder Larry Page.

Poornima Gupta, a spokeswoman for Google, said Saturday that it was the first such award for Mr. Schmidt since he joined the company in 2001. It includes stock and stock options, and vests over four years. She declined to comment further.

Mr. Schmidt's equity award is highly unusual, according to compensation experts and compensation data. Most such equity awards are given to new CEOs rather than sitting CEOs. And Mr. Schmidt's award is the largest in grant-value dollars for a sitting CEO since Motorola Inc. awarded a grant valued at $103 million to its then co-CEO, Sanjay Jha, in August 2008, according to Wall Street Journal research.

"It is probably unprecedented to see that magnitude of an award for someone shifting from CEO to [just] chairman," said Irving S. Becker, head of the U.S. executive-compensation practice for consultants Hay Group.

Other top Google executives have periodically received smaller equity awards.