Search firm to find payday of $40 million for placement of Google's chief executive.

Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. executive recruiter John Thompson and a group of his staff could make more than $40 million when Google Inc., the world's most-used Internet search engine, sells shares to the public.

Thompson, 56, helped recruit Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in 2001, a person familiar with the situation said.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Google awarded warrants to buy 1.19 million shares to the firm, with half of the gains from the warrants going to the Heidrick & Struggles consultants who worked to find Schmidt.

"I don't recall an Internet headhunter in recent years having this kind of payday," said Brian Foley, a compensation consultant with Brian Foley & Co. "Pre-bubble, there were certain firms that were more willing than others to take a lee in whole or in part in equity."

The payout, in which Heidrick received the fight to pay about $357,000 for a stake that may be worth $85 million when Google sells shares, reflects a rebound in the business and shares of Internet companies.

Google has said in SEC filings that it's planning an initial public offering to raise $2.72 billion.

Analysts have estimated that the stock market could value the company between $17 billion and $50 billion.

Google had $86.4 million in revenue in 2001, when Thompson's search led to Schmidt becoming CEO. He had previously been chief executive of Novell Inc., a maker of software to run corporate computer networks, with $1.05 billion in 2001 sales.

Schmidt, 49, has overseen Google's sales force and division vice presidents as the Mountain View-based company grew to $971.9 million in revenue by last year, allowing cofounders Sergey Brin, 30, and Larry Page, 32, to continue their focus on engineering and product development.