Outgoing Google CFO George Reyes might have been called an "idiot" behind his back, but in the immortal words of the Wu Tang Clan's Method Man, "Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dolla dolla bill y'all." Having already cashed in $259.6 million in Google stock, Reyes has been selling down his pool of options from 51,750 since announcing his retirement and still holds 10,000 at a strike price of only $5. Though Google's stock has dipped in that time, there's good reason to believe Reyes cashed in a total of $300 million in shares, options, bonuses and salary since he started at the company. Which makes incoming CFO Patrick Pichette's $10 million over four years in the offer letter below look like a bargain. Not that Pichette's complaining — given seven days to consider the offer, he signed it the same day he received it.

George Reyes, Google's current CFO, announced his retirement last August. But he won't be getting the office party and the gold watch until nearly a year later, when Patrick Pichette, formerly president of operations at Bell Canada, assumes the position on August 12th. Pichette also has experience working for top management consulting firm McKinsey & Company where he worked with North American telecoms. Pichette only has an MA, no PhD, but it is from Oxford. He'll be wandering the Googleplex as of August 1st, giving him some time to acclimatize to the local cult before taking over the company's financials. Full release after the jump.

Pessimism has been replaced by optimism: After Google shares traded down 1.2 percent today, traders responded to the release of Google's first-quarter earnings by sending the shares up nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading, crossing $500. Fear, in short, has been replaced by greed. As I expected, the call was filled with chest-thumping glee from never-modest CEO Eric Schmidt. That's why I listen, by the way — not to hear numbers I could read in analyst reports, but to hear how Google's executives talk about the company on one of the brief occasions that they leave the bubble of the Googleplex. Live coverage, starting at 1:30 p.m. Pacific:

It has been almost eight months since Google CFO George Reyes turned in his resignation. (Under pressure and personal disdain, we hear; his fellow executives routinely called him an "idiot" behind his back.) Since then, at least two people have been offered the job and turned it down. Even if Google were to announce a new CFO tomorrow in its earnings call, the delay will have gone past embarrassing and into mystifying. Who wouldn't want to help run the world's fastest-growing big media company, which has minted an army of billionaires? We'd heard rumors that Reyes was digging into matters that CEO Eric Schmidt didn't want him involved in. Did Google's prospective CFOs, once they started going through the books, find something frightening enough to send them fleeing from a dream job?

Shareholders watched Google shares plummet by nearly $300 since peaking last fall. Those investors will hardly be reassured by the cheery news in Google's newly released annual report and proxy statement. The company did earn $13.29 a share, and Valley job-seekers also benefitted: The company added over 6,000 full time employees to its payroll last year. But who's raking in the cash? Not founders Larry Page or Sergey Brin, who only receive equity as income. CEO Eric Schmidt took home a salary of $480,000, slightly less than last year. CFO George Reyes — whom the company is actively trying to oust from his comfortable perch— took home millions in salary and stock last year, as did senior vice presidents Jonathan Rosenberg, Omid Kordestani and Alan Eustace. Here's how they scored:

Does anyone really believe it's a coincidence that Google CFO George Reyes has announced his retirement so soon after the company missed Wall Street analysts' expectations for earnings in its second quarter? I only regret that I hadn't included Reyes in our ongoing "Toogle Many Googlers" series, in which Valleywag attempts to solve the binge of overhiring that led to Google's profit shortfall. After all, if the CFO isn't minding the payroll, who is? When reading these departing-executive press releases, just imagine that the fond farewells are in opposite-speak, and they begin to make sense.

Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan. Or so the saying goes. Google's second-quarter earnings — how to put this delicately? — sucked. At least compared to Wall Street's predictably overhyped expectations. Profits rose 28 percent, but that wasn't enough, and the stock fell 5 percent in after-hours trading, which means someone's got to take the fall. I dialed into Google's conference call, and listened closely to who did most of the talking. When it's bad news, the chief financial officer usually gets stuck with the unpleasant job, and sure enough, that's what happened, with CEO Eric Schmidt quickly handing the call over to CFO George Reyes and flipping tough questions to his colleagues. That tells me even Google insiders thought it was a bad quarter, too. Also on the call: Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and top executives Jonathan Rosenberg and Omid Kordestani.

BusinessWeek's hype-killing article on Google's product line has everyone buzzing about the company's product cycle. Guest writer Garry Bibb explains the process — it all starts with a Battlestar Galactica marathon and some Mike's Hard Lemonade.