Part-time Google masseuse retires a multimillionaire after share price boom

Part-time Google masseuse retires a multimillionaire after share price boom

Last updated at 09:45am on 13th November 2007 Comments (5)

A woman who took a job as a part-time masseuse at Google when it was a small start-up is now a multimillionaire, thanks to the rise of the internet giant's share price.

Bonnie Brown needed a job after divorcing so she took one at the small technology start-up earning $450 a week.

The post also gave her a pile of what she considered to be worthless stock options - but five years after starting work at Google she has now retired and even set up her own charity.

Bonnie Brown became a millionaire from stock options she was given while working at Google as a masseuse

When she took the job she was living with her sister - but she now lives in Nevada, and has her own masseuse and personal trainer.

Now Ms Brown, 52, has written a book, as yet unpublished, Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.

"I'm happy I saved enough stock for a rainy day, and lately it's been pouring," she told the New York Times.

She said: "Everytime I give some away, it just keeps filling up again. It's like an overflowing pot."

It is estimated that 1,000 employees, Ms Brown among them, have accrued fortunes worth at least $5 million apiece from the nine-year-old web giant's rise and rise.

The money has flowed from Google's stranglehold of the hugely lucrative online advertising market and investors' seemingly insatiable appetite for the group's shares.

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Google HQ: Home of millionaires... and masseurs

The company, which was founded in a garage by two students, sported a stock market value of a huge $207 billion.

Ms Brown ditched her day job at Google shortly after the company's stock market float.

At the same time, she cashed in most of her options - by which time the stock had doubled in value from its debut price of $85 to a sum that was enough to bag her a multimillion-dollar fortune.