Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is urging Apple investors to vote against Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s remuneration, citing concerns around the magnitude and structure of his equity award.
Apple’s annual shareholders meeting is set to take place Friday, March 4 at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET.
“There are significant concerns regarding the design and magnitude of the equity award made to CEO Cook in FY21… Half of the award lacks performance criteria,” ISS said in a letter.
Cook took home $3 million in salary in 2021. In addition, he received $82.3 million in stock awards, $12 million for hitting Apple’s targets, $1.4 million for air travel, 401(k) plan, insurance premiums and others.
In total, he earned $98.7 million in 2021, compared with $14.8 million a year earlier.
He received 333,987 restricted stock units, in his first stock grant since 2011 as part of a long-term equity plan. He will be eligible to receive additional units in 2023.
ISS valued Cook’s 2021 equity award at $75 million. His pay was 1,447 times that of the average employee at the tech giant, according to a filing disclosed in January.
Patrick Temple-West and Tim Bradshaw for Financial Times:
Shareholder votes on Apple’s executive packages are advisory only and do not require its board to take action in response. Some 95 per cent of votes cast last year went in Apple’s favour. But a significant protest this year could sway Apple’s board, nine years after the previous meaningful backlash over Cook’s pay.
ISS’s negative recommendation for Apple comes after a record number of S&P 500 companies last year failed to garner 50 per cent support for a pay vote at annual meetings.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple could do just as well or, likely, better, perhaps far better, for considerably less outlay at the CEO position.
• A visionary CEO would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who’s not.
• A charismatic CEO with stage presence would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who lacks both attributes.
• A publicly apolitical CEO would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who’s pigeonholed himself and, to a significant degree, unfortunately, Apple’s brand.
I’m going to just stay away from all that political stuff because that was just a personal thing. — Steve Jobs, August 2004
(See also: Apple-backed Southern Poverty Law Center wracked in turmoil, called a ‘con’ for ‘bilking gullible liberals’ – March 24, 2019)
To be perfectly clear: The problem isn’t Tim Cook espousing political views and donating to political causes. It’s still a free country in most places. The problem is his very questionable practice of hijacking Apple’s brand and capital to do so.
Even with you agree 100% with everything Tim Cook says and does (which, unless you are Tim Cook, is likely an issue in and of itself), all you have to do is simply imagine that Apple’s CEO is someone else — say, Peter Thiel — and that they’re also prone to using Apple’s brand and established goodwill to espouse and promote their own political beliefs…
We’re pretty sure that Steve Jobs did not intend for Apple to be turned into a personal soapbox for whoever happens to be occupying in the CEO’s office at the moment. — MacDailyNews, June 26, 2018
• A pragmatic CEO would have a more diversified supply chain and assembly points, so as to not be beholden to the whims of an authoritarian country locked under single-party control with a very poor human rights record and a penchant for censorship.
• Any CEO who would approve of even floating the idea of, much less intending to implement, a scheme of on-device photo scanning, without user permission or control, is not fit to be Apple CEO.
As an aside: We have never voted for Tim Cook in the Election of Directors nor will we vote for any subsequent Apple CEO in the Election of Directors. A CEO should not be on the BoD; too many conflicts of interest.
Apple’s proposals, proxy statement, and more information can be found here.
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BS…. He Earned Every Penny!!!
Read MDN’s many takes and related stories clueless. Only a BLIND Apple apologist and sycophant is unable to see the forest for the trees…
MDN Takes = whiny baby entitlement with more than a touch of homophobia, wrapped in blind Trump worship plus a side serving of faux Christianity and gun worship.
Iow…a complete joke.
The fact that there is zero evidence of “homophobia” in the Take undermines your entire argument.
Weak minds stoop to libeling without proof. See Democrats resorting to screaming “racist” or “homophobe” at everyone because their ideas are proven failures and they know it.
“Whiny baby, homophobia, faux Christianity and gun worship.“
Only a leftist moron composes an entire response in negative stereotypes and grade school name calling. BTW, all FALSE.
Yup, as usual the Left never disappoints, they reveal how stupid and shallow they are and intelligent debate? ZERO!
Keep it up, experience building up on your worthless reputation around here…
Amazing how socialist these Trumpers become when it comes to corporate welfare!
As a supporter of Trump, END corporate welfare. Your post is incorrect and meaningless…
In addition to the inappropriate political stances and corporate wokeness, I fear that Tim Cook has taken Apple to a place where they cannot be the amazing company they were under Jobs. I fear they’ve spread themselves too thin – too many products and too many services to do them all well. I remember when SJ came back to the company in ’96. The first thing he did was kill off 75% of the existing products and focus only on the really strong ones. Now I feel like there are too many of them and some are starting to suffer. Especially the Mac. It seems like the MacOS is buggier than it’s ever been, and things don’t “just work” like they used to. And the Apple apps that ship with the Mac are going downhill fast (Podcasts being the perfect example – it’s one of the worst apps I’ve ever used, not just from Apple, but from ANYONE, MS included). Yes, the company is more valuable than ever but I wonder what SJ would think of Apple now?
First I object to anyone receiving $3 million per year as a base salary. No one is worth that. Period. And, I say that as the founder and principal of a company that is valued at approximately $3.2 billion by Deloitte. A CEO could hide under his desk like a prior Apple CEO supposedly did and he’d still get over $2,700 an hour for every hour he hid under that desk.
Bonuses must be tied to performance. If they are not they are really just additional salary but called bonuses for accounting and tax purposes. Bonuses not based upon hard performance requirements distort the whole concept of “bonus”.
As for performance bonuses, they should not be tied to just stock value or market cap. They must be tied to performance of the company itself: post tax profits, units shipped, etc. In reality performance bonuses must be tied to a relevant combination of several elements like those. Tying performance to just market cap or EBITDA or something similar is not truly representative of what the company is doing. If, for example, you focus on market cap there are a myriad number of ways you can inflate those values without making the underlying company better.
Further, performance bonuses must be tied to performance levels that are not trivial to achieve. They must require the CEO to go the extra mile and make him push the company to truly grow.
The reality is if you build a great company and keep building it all those other indicators follow.
Worth is a subjective assessment.
Oh lord that was a lot of whining MDN. You can pine for Steve Jobs all you want but that ship has sailed. Mid to large companies have to pay homage to a certain political slant, they have to. If you don’t then your business will be hurt. That is just the way it is and how the game is played. Yes, Tim Cook has waded into some politics but for big tech he is the least political. Facebook? Google? A plethora of internet services companies? Apple for its size has incredibly stayed out of politics as a relative measurement.
You are hitting Tim Cook for his supply chain and manufacturing? Seriously? A supply chain that just hit everyone hard yet Apple is setting records. Yea, that Tim Cook really needs to fix that! (queue the exasperated ‘he’s not Steve Jobs’ exhale).
Apple could have been taken in a lot of directions post Steve Jobs. Soaked up personal data and monetize it for dozens of billions. They could turn out the Apple Tooth Brush and Apple Coffee Maker. They could make their products that fully appeal outside the eco. Apple has stuck to the core mission that Steve Jobs set down: do a handful products well. Do it in house. Don’t worry about what twitter-verse (or posting boards say), don’t wade into the media frenzy that others kick up. Steve Jobs first spoke of building an EV. Here is Tim Cook taking it to the possible reality. The in house Silicon. Done. Fyi, Steve Jobs wanted Chinese business as anyone.
Seriously, get over yourselves and this now ever growing cartoonish reminiscing of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs picked Tim Cook for a reason and the reason was rock solid sound.
The problem really is that detractors cannot stand Cook blatantly and unrelentingly showing the finger to right-wingers.
Timmy and Trumpy had no problems stroking each other’s egos. What makes Cook unique among ceos?
For 50 years, thanks Dick Nixon, US corporations have been given carte blanche to hollow out domestic work in favor of cheap Chinese imports. Walmartization was cheered and supported by everyone, look how much money you save with disposable plastic imported junk! All CEOs took the extra cash flow and put it right in their fat pockets. And every week mdn keeps trying to pump AAPL to reward exactly that corporate behavior.
…. But now we whine about it because Timmy doesn’t bed a person with XX chromosomes every night? Okay mdn. Keep pumping those google ads on your site and trite cherry-picked outrage articles. You have no credibility.
All the whining about Cook is right wingers snoflake tears. Par for the course for hypocrite mdn and its political trolls.
For the record: ALL fortune 500 ceos are economic traitors who don’t give a shite about country, democracy, traditions, or political party. None of them are worth but a fraction of the compensation their buddies on the boards hand them. They will distract you whiny plebians with social agenda and political rhetoric while happily making smoky backroom deals with whatever communist/socialist/foreign/warlord/criminal/corrupt partners they choose. Same as it ever was. The only thing that makes Cook unique is that he plays the game better than anybody, especially compared to his jealous right wing cynics.
Vote down all CEO excess compensation. Not because mdn continues to whine about Cook ad nauseum, but because no ceo compensation today is realistically related in any way to the mission that corporations are chartered to achieve. There are worse offenders than Cook.
The fact that there is zero mention of “bed[ding] a person with XX chromosomes every night” in the Take undermines your entire argument.
Weak minds stoop to libeling without proof.
See Democrats who scream “racist” or “homophobe” at everyone because their ideas are proven failures and they cannot intelligently support them.
Steve Jobs personally pick Tim to take over Apple. If you ever truly believed in Steve Jobs then you would trust his final decision on who was best placed to take his legacy forward.
Tim ain’t Steve but Apple is Still the best company in the world.
I believe Steve knew exactly what is friend stood for as a morally sound fulfilment executive and Steve wanted a morally dedicated heart at Apple.
Stop comparing Tim with Steve just know that they were great friend and trust in Steves final decisions .
Time has not got everything perfect but he has proved many times over to be Steves greatest legacy for Steve Jobs making Apple the biggest company in the world with a caring heart.
I’m more concerned who comes next when Tim de ides to leave so I hope that won’t happen any time soon.
Excellently said Mark Ryder.
Steve Jobs had a conglomoration of traits that made him a once in a generation visionary to what tech users would want. But Steve Jobs isn’t coming through the door and the idea of “pick a creative type” to be CEO of the most profitable company on the planet? That is comically naive. IMHO Steve Jobs clearly saw the handwriting on the wall and that is why Tim Cook, who Steve had known for a decade, was personally chosen. IMHO he also chose him because he would carry on Apple through the extra mega growth that may come. Guess what>? Tim Cook has largely faithfully carried out the foundations of Steve Jobs (I’ll be happy to list off that reality point by point). Has he made mistakes (CSAM scanning)? Of course he has. Do I agree with everything? Of course I don’t. But the idea that MDN would try the guilt act of ‘if you agree with Tim Cook 100% of the time’. No, I don’t agree 100% but guess what? MDN and the rest project far more of the Steve Jobs was 100%. Take the rose colored glasses off MDN, Steve Jobs made mistakes too. Steve Jobs wanted his company to win, to be huge, to reward shareholders, to sell huge numbers of their focused number of products ALL over the world.
Precisely Mark Ryder, the actual concern is the post Tim Cook Apple. The CEO who has no connection to Steve Jobs, the first CEO that sees the hyper-mega cachet of the Apple brand name as a way to sell a heap of products? Then the Apple that Steve Jobs laid the foundation for and Tim Cook has largely faithfully carried on is now over.
You’re right, of course, SJ did handpick TC for the job of CEO. Now, let me just say right off the bat, I’m not comparing the two, but remember, SJ also handpicked John Sculley. Just sayin’.
HA! Well ndelcastillo, that is a point for you, well done.
But it also helps to take the rose colored glasses off of ‘Oh Steve Jobs we need you desperately!’. He was a unique visionary who also made big mistakes too. Tim Cook wasn’t;t one of those mistakes and I am perplexed as to why you all think that.
The reason the TIm Cook apologists stoop to “you hate him because he’s gay” is because they have no valid arguments against MDN’s actual statements:
“Apple could do just as well or, likely, better, perhaps far better, for considerably less outlay at the CEO position.”
TRUE.
“A visionary CEO would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who’s not.”
TRUE
“A charismatic CEO with stage presence would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who lacks both attributes.”
TRUE
“A publicly apolitical CEO would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who’s pigeonholed himself and, to a significant degree, unfortunately, Apple’s brand.”
TRUE
“A pragmatic CEO would have a more diversified supply chain and assembly points, so as to not be beholden to the whims of an authoritarian country locked under single-party control with a very poor human rights record and a penchant for censorship.”
TRUE
“Any CEO who would approve of even floating the idea of, much less intending to implement, a scheme of on-device photo scanning, without user permission or control, is not fit to be Apple CEO.”
PAINFULLY TRUE
You actually typed in your name as “Truth Meter” then typed this as “true”: and “A visionary CEO would make the company more appealing to a broader customer base than one who’s not.”
How inane can one internet poster be? I realize Internet anonymity allows anyone to spew their unhinged hating emotions via an Android keyboard but this is so moronic as to be painful to even contemplate someone could write this. You literally didn’t perform one second of research did you? Just pounding away on your keyboard without an actual thought. True Fact: in 2022 Apple products are the most popular and successful they’ve ever been, period, full stop. Anything you say to counter that will be plumbing new depths of unhinged emotional rants. Further, Steve Jobs was a devout walled garden man. You all project anything on to Steve Jobs to try and sate your emotions. People like you are a negative because truth means nothing to you (only your emotions).
“A pragmatic CEO would have a more diversified supply chain and assembly points,”. Hi I call myself “truth meter” but truth means nothing to me. Apple has grown into the gold standard of supply chain. Their name is literally page one of the supply chain manual. But gee, how do we know this is true? Hey, I got a test! Let’s shut down material supply, production and transportation lines and see what company can weather and maybe even thrive in this supply chain hostile environment. Seem like a good test “truth” meter? Seems to be that would be the very best test, a live fire test, a system stress test.. So, yea “truth” meter, how did companies do including Apple on their supply chain excellence live fire stress test. Fyi, MDN should be embarrassed (your are clearly behind feeling embarrassment, it is the only explanation) for writing that in his article. Absolutely embarrassed. I think MDN is a great site but that was borderline ranting propaganda.
I’d dismantle each and nearly every one of your bastardization of “true”s but for people like you facts and truth mean nothing.