“Steve Jobs in January 2000 received the largest option grant in history: 20 million shares with a present value that I estimated were $471 million. That option grant represented 5.6 percent of the shares outstanding of Apple Computer Inc. The option promptly sank under water, as did a second option covering another 7.5 million shares, which was granted in October 2001. Jobs then took an offer in March 2003 to turn in all 27.5 million shares for five million free shares then worth about $75 million. As of the markets close on Nov. 22, those free shares had a value of $307 million. Had Jobs kept his 27.5 million option shares, they would have contained, again as of the close on Nov. 22, paper profits of $678 million. Bad move, Steve. Some people may perceive you as arrogant, but based on your decision, you really underestimated yourself,” Graef Crystal writes for Bloomberg News.
Full article here.
Yes, and because Steve made this horrible decision, he’s only about 1000 times as rich as Graef Crystal of Bloomberg News.
It’s really easy to play the market with 20/20 hindsight.
Mr. Crystal is the only arrogant f*** here.
I think he’s overestimated himself in this case.
I’m sure Steve cries over that money on his way to Pixar!
Oh no! Steve Jobs missed out on adding another $371 Million to his $2.4 BILLION Net worth.
I’m sure Steve will be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and living in a box for missing that decision.
There was a time in the late eighty’s where Job’s stock in Apple, and therefor his net worth, had dropped in value over $500,000,000 over a period of a couple of years…….his comment ‘I’m not going to lose any sleep over it’ and it sounded like he could care less……He’s probabaly more concerned about the processors on the new (in development according to rumour) PB G5’s overheating!
Mr. Crystal forgets that Directors can’t just up and sell all their options or shares at a moment’s whim. They are on a pre-defined schedule so as to not cause volatility (among other SEC-related things) in the stock price.
One could also argue that had SJ not turned in his original options, the stock may not have moved as high as it is now.
Mr. Crystal has demonstrated quite abley that hindsight is 20-20.
All he needed to do is predict which stocks would go up and when? Heck anybody can do that! Right?
Well now, this article couldn’t be a much more senseless waste of Internet bandwidth, could it?
I love how the writer decides that SJ made a big mistake based on what could have been, as if the only thing that drives SJ is income. I don’t think SJ is driven by income as much as others think he is. From what I read, he’s driven to build the best products he can and lead a team to the greatest heights they can go, regardless of market share, etc. Some people just don’t understand that and want to constantly compare him (and others) to a set of standards they impose.
And in other news, after seeing this weeks Lotto numbers, all I have to do is go back in time and…
Funny…
There is that old saying…those that can DO…those that CAN’T teach…and then there are the Mr. Crystals of the world…poor babys.
Is this same columnist who complained about Steve walking away with fortune by trading in his worthless options?
Graef Crystal, the nation’s best-known expert on executive compensation, was a consultant to Disney on Michael Ovitz’s contract. I believe Eisner is trying to get some of that back!
“America’s leading expert on executive compensation” talks that way about everyone, but yes, he is very arrogant. I guess, when you are constantly negotiating and reporting on multi-million dollar golden parachutes, compensation packages and stock options, a bit of jealousy sticks. (My turn for arrogance.)
This is the guy who says you pay a billionaire whatever his conscience demands. His pronouncements are not really for mass consumption.
That corporations don’t charge options to earnings is one of the poorer accounting rules of the times.
twilightmoon – LOL
you hit the nail right on the top
Steve is more of an artist, not so much on the money side….
Oh boo hoo. So he only made $307m over four years.
Yeah, that must really hurt. I bet he kicks himself every day over it.
It is a big loss but not a total loss.
If Steve Jobs knew how succesfull Pixar would be he would have settled for a bigger percentage of the profits that Disney made from their films.
Money is nice, but plenty of it or lots of plenty of it doesn’t make a big difference.
I wouldn’t even know what to spend 1 million on. I can only use one PowerBook at the time anyway…
Sol:
“If Steve Jobs knew how succesfull Pixar would be he would have settled for a bigger percentage of the profits that Disney made from their films.”
Are you aware that when Steve negotiated that deal with Disney, it was the best deal that *anyone* had *ever* got from Disney? It was shockingly better than what other’s had been able to negotiate before. And you think he got screwed? What?
Kool:
“I wouldn’t even know what to spend 1 million on. I can only use one PowerBook at the time anyway…”
And Steve doesn’t waste it on clothes clearly! And his jet is paid for by Apple, so he’s covered there too. Heck even his house is a dump according to him.
You know there was an interesting study done once to see if money really CAN buy happiness.
What they found out was that there was a correlation between how much people made and what percentage said they were happy up to around 60,000 dollar per year in Salary (this was maybe 10 years ago I heard this). After that there was absolutely no correlation whatsoever.
So someone who makes like 80,000 dollars a year has just as much of a chance of being happy as someone who makes 100 million dollars a year.
Jack A:
One immediate (and serious) problem with your study. The cost of living (COL) varies *widely* at various places around the US. So in Oklahoma 60k a year salary is a LOT more than in southern California out by me. It’s literally the difference between owning your home and renting a condo or an appartment.
That sort of study may have some sort of localized regional significance, but not a national one. Not without some sort of careful method to balance out for COL.
The point I was trying to make Twilightmoon was not what the exact breaking point was for maximum happiness from salary.
The major interesting point I got from the study was that there IS a breaking point and that it is relatively low. Being a millionaire doesn’t necessarily make you happier that being just fairly well off middle class.
“You know there was an interesting study done once to see if money really CAN buy happiness.”
“Money might not buy happiness, but it sure can buy a yacht big enough to sail right up next to it.”
– David Lee Roth
Wellllllllll Steve did buy the top and sell the bottom, but like someone says, who cares?