Apple gives COO Tim Cook $22 million cash-and-stock bonus for filling in for Steve Jobs

“Apple Inc. awarded Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook a cash-and-stock bonus worth $22 million for filling in while Steve Jobs, the consumer electronics giant’s chief executive, was on medical leave,” John Kell and Andrew Morse report for Dow Jones Newswires.

“The bonus, disclosed in a regulatory filing, gives Cook $5 million in cash and 75,000 restricted stock units, half of which will vest on March 10, 2011, and the other half on March 10, 2012,” Kell and Morse report. “At Friday’s closing price, those shares would be worth a little more than $17 million.”

“David Wise, a senior consultant with consultancy Hay Group, says an award of this size and vesting period is rare,” Kell and Morse report. “‘I think shareholders may question the size and the vesting of the award,, but as long as Apple is performing, shareholders aren’t likely to be too unhappy,’ Wise said. Typically, such grants have a three-to-five-year vesting period.”

Kell and Morse report, “In a brief document outlining the bonus, Apple said Jobs nominated Cook for the bonus ‘in recognition of his outstanding performance in assuming the day-to-day operations of the company for the period in fiscal 2009 during which Mr. Jobs was on medical leave of absence.'”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Worth every penny and share and then some.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Richard M.” for the heads up.]

29 Comments

  1. I think the man has more than earned his right to take a seat at the Apple board, which would serve as the best interest for Apple as well. Unless of course, he may feel that additional responsibility may somehow hinder his day to day duty as COO extraordinaire, and nightly duties as members of the Avengers.

  2. Worth every penny, as an investor I like this guy. I also like the senior team that control AAPL at the mo. What an amazing collection of talent is in place at Apple at the moment. I think we’ve only just begun.

  3. Yes, it’s actually great that someone gets a big bonus, for actually making something, and making bundles of $$ for the shareholders!

    Just blows me away when these guys get bonus’s while driving the company’s into the ground and or bankruptcy!

  4. I agree that Tim and his team did a great job. I agree that he should be able to sit at the table with anyone. I agree that he should get a significant reward for his services. However, NOBODY deserves to get that kind of money for doing a job.
    There was a time in North America when the remuneration rule was 40 times the lowest paid employee and North American companies were the envy of the world. Here we are with a top exec earning 440x the lowest employee (at a generous estimate of $50K) and Tim may have actually earned this money.
    The Bankers that destroyed my retirement fund and making 2 and 3 times this figure. It’s just flat out immoral. It really has gone too far. We’re just creating a “monarchy” of chin-less moronic children with too much money. Can you say: “Paris Hilton”?
    *rant off* Yes, I’m a little Bitter. It’s not Tim’s fault. He worked hard, did a great job and deserves to be paid for it. But $22M? and what happens if Apple does what it should do? I could be $30M

  5. Hey swing, I feel for you and the
    millions of others!

    “The Bankers that destroyed my retirement fund and making 2 and 3 times this figure. It’s just flat out immoral”

    But I think this is a total
    differant situation, Apple has always Paid conservative salerys , but has rewarded when a great job is done! Not like those asshole insurance and financial jerks, who get much higher bonus’s , even when they are loosing money! And loosing other peoples money!

  6. So they gave Tim Cook 22,000,000 times what Steve Jobs officially gets paid, as a “bonus”? ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />

  7. Sorry, Tim doesn’t belong on the Board. The Board exists as an extension of the shareholders. It exists to guide management and insure managements plans and execution are in the best interest of the Company and the Shareholders. It can not and should not be steeped with the very management the board has been created to oversee!!!

  8. @What

    I absolutely agree with you. I’m shocked that Apple doesn’t have some type of profit sharing plan that embraces all it’s talented employees.

    A great way would be to allow employees to purchase at a 30-50% discount some number of Apple gear each year! Now that would keep current hardware in the hands of your employees, and allow them to seed relatively new hardware to reluctant switchers.

  9. The reality of the situation is that any person (for any company) who makes these kinds of bonuses makes at least that much for the company, which in turn bumps the GDP of the US by at least that much by merely existing.

    Companies that hand out bonuses, whether it be insurance or tech., many give out millions in bonuses each year, but they in turn create jobs that do even more for the economy.

  10. As long as his bonus is tightly tied to performance I don’t care. It gets my goat when bonuses are paid when the company is failing.

    Steve may be trying to make sure he doesn’t leave. Overall people at Apple are paid average salaries and for the most part work their ass off. The job is rewarding but burn out can happen.

    Some shareholders will complain about this but as long as it was not illegal then Cook’s got the cash.

  11. That’s what bonuses are for: to reward a senior manager for the success the company enjoys. It’s not in his contract, like it seems to be for investment bankers, regardless of performance. Also, most is in stock options. If Apple tanks (yeah, right <grin>), his options will be much less worth.

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