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Tim Cook, the man who replaces Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO

Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:01 UTC
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One of the latest pictures of Steve Jobs suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer One of the latest pictures of Steve Jobs suffering from a rare form of pancreatic cancer

Steve Jobs took home 1 dollar a year for serving as Apple's CEO. The company's new leader, Tim Cook, is getting a richer deal. Apple's board has given Cook a restricted stock grant of 1 million shares, Apple reported late Friday in a regulatory filing. Those shares have a market value of 383.6 million dollars, based on the stock's closing price on Friday.

But Cook will collect the shares only if he remains an Apple employee for the next decade. Half of his stock will vest in August 2016, and half will vest five years later, in 2021.

As Apple's chief operating officer, Cook collected an annual salary last year of 800,000 and an additional bonus of 900,000. He also took home a special award from the board for his “outstanding performance” as acting CEO during Jobs' 2009 medical leave: A 5 million dollars cash bonus and a grant of 75,000 shares.

That put Cook's total 2010 compensation at 59 million dollars -- enough to make him one of the tech industry's highest-paid executives.

In contrast, Steve Jobs earned a $1 annual salary every year since he rejoined Apple in 1997. While many one dollar a year CEO reap big back-end stock and options packages, Jobs was almost a financial ascetic: He collected no stock awards most years, no cash bonuses and no perks, even turning down a 401(k) match from Apple.

But in late 1999, Apple's board famously came through with a whopper of an executive bonus: The company spent 90 million to buy Jobs a Gulf-stream V airplane. It also tossed in options on 10 million Apple shares.

“Apple's market cap has risen from less than 2 billion to over 16 billion dollars under Steve's leadership,” Apple board member Ed Woolard said at the time.

“Steve has taken no compensation thus far, and we are therefore delighted to give him this airplane in appreciation of the great job he has done for our shareholders during this period.”

Apple's market cap currently stands at 355.6 billion dollars, making it the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

Steve Jobs exit from the top post at the technology company he co-founded in 1976 follows years of health struggles that began in 2003, when he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

His neuroendocrine tumour wasn’t the worst-case scenario, since it’s often less aggressive than other pancreatic malignancies that can kill patients within a year. But Jobs said on Aug. 24 he “can no longer meet my duties and expectations” as Apple’s chief executive officer. He will become chairman.

Jobs underwent cancer treatment in July 2004 that appeared to successfully remove the tumor. During Jobs' absence, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.

In early August 2006, however, when Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, he looked thin and almost gaunt on the stage.

On Dec. 16, 2008, Apple announced that marketing vice president Phil Schiller would deliver the company's final keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo 2009, again stirring questions about Jobs' health.

In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis.

On Jan. 17, 2011, one and a half years after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence.
 

Categories: Economy, International.
Financial Tags: AAPL.

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