Apple shovels $400m in stock options to top execs

[FarCenter]

Apple CEO Tim Cook and his board of directors appear keen on keeping their executive brain trust intact – so much so that they have just shelled out around $400m worth of stock options to their top talent.

"Our executive team is incredibly talented and they are all dedicated to Apple’s continued success," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Bloomberg Businessweek. "These stock grants are meant to reward them down the road for their hard work in helping to keep Apple the most innovative company in the world."

Six of Apple's top execs received options on 150,000 shares, half scheduled to vest in June 2013, half in March 2016 "assuming continued employment through the applicable vesting date" – which seems only fair, eh?

•Scott Forstall, senior vice president iOS software – 150,000 shares
•Bob Mansfield, SVP hardware engineering – 150,000 shares
•Peter Oppenheimer, SVP and CFO – 150,000 shares
•Phil Schiller, SVP worldwide product marketing – 150,000 shares
•Jeff Williams, SVP operations – 150,000 shares
•Bruce Sewell, SVP and general counsel – 150,000 shares
•Eddy Cue, SVP internet software and services – 100,000 shares
At noon on Monday, Cupertino time, Apple's shares were going for $399.10 a pop,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/07/apple_stock_option_grants/

[dionysus]

1. well, they can do with the money what they will... how bout they give some workers raises too?

big ones.... they've got a shitload of money to spread around...

[dipsydoodle]

4. You might find

that the benfit of those options is the increase above the current share value now. Their incentive is to increase that value by innovation. Its not cash and can't be spent now.

[FarCenter]

8. They are Restricted Stock Units with an exercise price of $0

So yes, they will be worth the shares times the price when they can be exercised, not the difference in price between now and then.

See for example http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm and http://investor.apple.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1181431-11-54907&CIK=320193

[dipsydoodle]

9. Yes

I was about to edit what I'd written.

Effect is to encourage them to stay.

[dionysus]

10. i know how stock options work, it was just a general observation.

[HappyMe]

2. 1%ers

[dipsydoodle]

6. In some respects

Take ALL of them away and what's left- no Apple.

[PoliticAverse]

3. They weren't backdated, right ? n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Every time an Apple exec gets a bonus, an iSlave in China suicides. n/t

[Tesha]

11. Does the same thing happen re: HP, Dell, Nokia, and all the other folks...

...who use those same factories?

Tesha

[freshwest]

12. Yeah, but their names are harder to pronounce than Apple.

I wish every one of these high tech companies would all bring their production facilities back to areas with better working conditions.

It's the dark side of all the tech that we need to connect to the world and keep in touch in a global society, and spread information.

Crap, why does everything have to have such an evil side?

[Tesha]

14. *THAT* is an *EXCELLENT* question.

I believe the answer is "Because of the quest for
maximized (short-term) profits."

Tesha

[Old and In the Way]

7. Pump and Dump.

Let's see where Apple is in 5 years. I suspect they'll be a shell of it's current self. This team will do whatever it takes to make the stock worth more in the short term, but that won't necessarily be in the stockholders best longterm interests. I'm curious how Jobs would have viewed this...

[Initech]

13. And the Apple Store employees probably get a $0.10/hr raise if they're lucky.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: