It's like every day is my birthday!Photo: Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Facebook is in hiring heaven, what with the total Internet domination (even MySpace caved), envy-inducing revenue growth, impending IPO, and low-priced private stock. Which might be why at least 118 Googlers have recently switched camps from Eric Schmidt to Mark Zuckerberg. Now, Google is opting to plug the leak with fistfuls of cash. One mid-level developer told Techcrunch he was offered a 15 percent raise on his $150,000 salary, quadruple the stock benefits, and a $500,000 cash bonus just to stay for a year. He jumped ship anyway, unlike the 80 percent who end up sticking with Google's counter-offer. But with Facebook quietly predicting it will hit a $100 billion valuation, even one-tenth of 1 percent of its private stock would net an employee $100 million. With that kind of potential windfall on the horizon, it's no wonder Google's getting desperate.

Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook [TechCrunch]