Apple cuts CEO Tim Cook’s pay after company misses 2016 targets

“Apple Inc. said Chief Executive Tim Cook and other leaders received less total compensation in 2016 as the company missed its revenue and profit goals for the year,” Austen Hufford reports for The Wall Street Journal.

“According to a regulatory filing on Friday, Apple said its annual sales of $215.6 billion were 3.7% below its target of $223.6 billion, and its operating income of $60 billion was 0.5% short of the $60.3 billion target,” Hufford reports. “As a result, company executives got 89.5% of their targeted annual cash incentive.”

“In all, Mr. Cook received $8.75 million in total 2016 compensation, down from $10.28 million in 2015. Mr. Cook’s pay fell 15% last year versus a 9.6% average decline for Apple’s other named executives, as cash incentives make up a larger percentage of his compensation. Pay for Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri fell 10% to $22.8 million, which includes about $20 million in stock awards,” Hufford reports. “In a filing last August, Mr. Cook said he received 1.26 million Apple shares, valued around $135 million at the time, that previously were restricted. Mr. Cook earned the bulk of the shares by remaining CEO for five years.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: In theory, this would wake them up. In reality, they’re all fabulously wealthy many times over (How will Maestri ever survive on a mere $22.8 million per year? And, Cook, on just a paltry $8.75 million? Woe is them! Cupertino’s soup kitchens will be overwhelmed) and we worry, based on copious and ever-compounding evidence, that Tim, Jony, Phil, Eddy et al. have lost their motivation, which is, to remind, to delight and satisfy Apple customers, not to rest on their laurels, miss (or don’t even bother making*) shipping products during the crucial holiday shopping season, and saddle customers with buggy, inelegant software and services that do not measure up to the standards that we expect of Apple Inc.

*4K Apple TV, updated iPads, updated iMacs, salable Mac Pros, etc.