“Pointing out that Apple CEO Tim Cook in May refused his US$75 million dividends from over 1 million shares, Proview’s founder and chairman Yang Rongshan–who fought with Apple for the iPad trademark in China and was awarded US$60 million by the court–said people around him realized the amount was ‘very close with the compensation Apple would pay for Proview,'” Cyrus Lee reports for ZDNet.
“Ray Mai, who served in the legal department for Proview’s Taiwan arm, held the same view. Speaking to IT Times, a mainland-based technology newspaper, Mai said the trademark dispute was distinguishable from other infringement cases as someone in Apple who had made a mistake, and the consequences of which should not be passed to the shareholders,” Lee reports. “‘Since Steve Jobs was gone, Cook should take up the responsibility,’ said Mai.”
Lee reports, “Apple lost a lawsuit against Proview in December 2011 when it said it was the legitimate owner of the iPad trademark in China. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in late-May 2012, Apple indicated Cook asked his restricted stock units not receive dividends amounting to around US$75 million. A Chinese higher court announced last month Apple paid US$60 million to Proview and settled the case through mediation in China.”
Read more in the full article here.
I thought that the issue was that employees were given restricted stock units. When they decided to give dividends, they had a choice to include or exclude the restricted units. If they excluded them, then employees wouldn’t get dividends. Cook wanted them to get dividends as “bonuses”, but didn’t want to appear to be giving himself a huge bonus, so he declined the dividends for himself.
$75m isn’t $60m. It’s really not that close. And the dividend decision was made considerably earlier than the settlement decision.
When I read the headline, my first interpretation was, “did Cook just hand them the loose change from his pocket?”
This is stupid. The two things are totally unrelated. Just because the numbers are close, it means Tim Cook paid for it? I’m sure there are dozens of expenses for Apple that occur in the same time frame that are “about” $75 million.
Let’s see… Maybe Tim Cook is paying the utilities bill at all Apple locations worldwide for the month of July. He left the lights on in his office one night, and he feels guilty about that… Yeah, that sounds reasonable…
China is a scum criminal nation run by ruthless Hitler style dictators of the worst kind.
Sad to see the West selling out to these monsters.
WRONG: Apple lost a lawsuit against Proview in December 2011 when it said it was the legitimate owner of the iPad trademark in China.
Apple WON a lawsuit against Proview in June of 2011 in Hong Kong, the designated court of redress designated in Apple’s contract with Proview. That ended ALL obligations by Apple to address this issue. Everything thereafter was mere Chinese flimflam and deceit. That Apple paid any attention and paid Proview any cash is one of the biggest sucker moments in Apple’s history.
If all the BS about Tim Cook personally forking over the dough to scam artists Proview is true, I say fine with me. I would be glad he took the blame for this blunder. I just hope he’s learned his lesson about China: Criminal Nation. I also hope he is prepared to deal with all the ME TOO! lawsuits that are resulting from this blunder. There are TWO ME TOO! lawsuits in China: Criminal Nation against Apple within the last week, and counting. It’s gonna suck Tim. 😕