In September I wrote about Google&'s &''extraordinary&'' efforts to stop employees, particularly engineers, from resigning to join pre-IPO startups like LinkedIn, Twitter and especially Facebook. In one case we confirmed an engineer making around $150,000 turned down a 15% raise plus $500,000 in restricted stock and left for Facebook anyway.

That&'s all chump change now. We&'ve confirmed today that a staff engineer at Google being heavily romanced by Facebook was offered a jaw dropping $3.5 million in restricted stock by Google (this means Google is handing over stock worth $3.5 million based on its value today, and that stock will vest over time). He quite wisely accepted Google&'s counter offer. Facebook lost this one.

From our previous post in September:

Sources close to Google told us that about 80% of people stay when they‚a4‚¬‚a4„re offered a counter to a Facebook offer. But some still leave. Part of that may be that Facebook is quietly telling people, never in writing, that there‚a4‚¬‚a4„s no reason their stock won‚a4‚¬‚a4„t hit $100 billion in total valuation over the next couple of years. No guarantees, yadda yadda, but hey if you get 1/10 of 1%, that‚a4‚¬‚a4„s $100 million in stock. Now it‚a4‚¬‚a4„s a party.

Google isn‚a4‚¬‚a4„t making these kind of counter offers to everyone, but it‚a4‚¬‚a4„s not a one off, either. It seems to me that every Google engineer at least should be taking a personal day to go collect a Facebook offer. Even if it‚a4‚¬‚a4„s just to get a counter offer from their current employer.

However effective these counter offers are, they sure aren&'t good for morale internally at Google. Unless, of course, you&'re one of the ones winning the lottery.