Tim Cook and Eddy Cue Receive Combined $94 Million in Apple Stock

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue received 560,000 and 350,000 restricted stock units respectively this week, worth a combined $93.8 million based on AAPL's closing price of $103.12 on Monday, according to a pair of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tim Cook and Eddy Cue at an Apple Store in 2014 (Image: Bloomberg)​

Cook was awarded with 280,000 performance-based restricted stock units in full based on Apple's performance relative to the other companies in the S&P 500 over a two-year period ending August 24. Apple needed to achieve a total shareholder return (TSR) of at least 41.36% to place in the top third of companies in the index, and Apple's TSR for the two-year period was 76.76%.

Cook and Cue did not sell any of their RSUs, although 290,836 and 171,853 shares were withheld by Apple respectively to satisfy the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements on vesting of RSUs. Cue transferred his remaining 178,147 shares that vested to a family trust, and he has now been awarded all 700,000 shares granted to him on September 2, 2011.

Cook has a remaining 4.76 million RSUs scheduled to vest as follows per the SEC filing:

700,000 RSUs on August 24, 2016; 700,000 RSUs on August 24, 2021; 1,680,000 vest in six equal annual installments commencing August 24, 2016; the remaining 1,680,000 are all subject to performance based vesting requirements and will potentially vest in six annual installments commencing August 24, 2016.

Cook must remain employed at Apple to receive his unvested RSUs on their applicable vesting dates.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Tim Cook and Eddy Cue Receive Combined $94 Million in Apple Stock

 

[JaySoul]

They timed that suspiciously well.

 

[Kaibelf]

They timed that suspiciously well.

Implying? It's stock, not money. It changes value anyway. The number of shares was based on company performance, which is strong, obviously.

 

[AngerDanger]

And then they arm wrestled to see who'd get the lot of it.

 

[magicschoolbus]

What do you even do with all of that money is beyond me.

 

[iSlave]

What do you even do with all of that money is beyond me.

Have a little chuckle at the cheap Foxconn staff that enabled your fortune?

 

[69Mustang]

What do you even do with all of that money is beyond me.

Hookers and blow. Lot's of 'em both. And a capuchin monkey.

 

[ricktat]

I bet they could even retire if they wanted.

 

[ProwlingTiger]

Despite what people may say, Apple is doing very well under Cook. Sure I'm encountering a lot of software bugs that simply shouldn't be there in every release of iOS 8 and some in Yosemite and El Capitan (yes I realize it is still beta). And there are some design/function decisions I disagree with. But as someone recently once told me "we will fill the position when we find the right candidate," I remembered that OS X developers were pulled from iOS and thus OS X (one of the versions) was delayed. This means that Apple at its heart is still a small company striving for quality work. And I admire that.

 

[Dargoth]

What do you even do with all of that money is beyond me.

There hasn't been born a single person who can't think of something to do with 94 million dollars. If you had it, you'd have no trouble finding a use for it. The lottery has proven that time and time again, although the key is to know when to stop spending.

 

[newdeal]

I knew something like this was coming when Cook put out a statement to calm the drop in Apple stock...that was so rare for Apple that it could only have been self serving

 

[unplugme71]

They timed that suspiciously well.

Umm... what?

It's not like they bought (using their cash) the shares at the lower value.

It doesn't matter if the value of the RSU was a penny or 10 million per share, its only worth what you cash it out as.

Now if they contacted the SEC to sell it and were able to move the stock price up around their scheduled sale date, then I can see this being suspicious. But that was NOT the case here.

 

[Rogifan]

I knew something like this was coming when Cook put out a statement to calm the drop in Apple stock...that was so rare for Apple that it could only have been self serving

Why? Neither have sold anything.

 

[Shanpdx]

8GB iPhone 6S at $649 coming, lolz!

 

[eww7633]

There hasn't been born a single person who can't think of something to do with 94 million dollars. If you had it, you'd have no trouble finding a use for it. The lottery has proven that time and time again, although the key is to know when to stop spending.

I believe Tim has said he will pay for his nephews college education, and use the rest for a charitable foundation at some point.

 

[Rocketman]

The number of shares withheld for taxation is 462,689. At the price as I type this that is $105.86 or $4.898^7. The government gets that within the year. So the government is the biggest immediate winner. The owners of the stock are holding it for the long run less any programmed sales for diversification or cash flow needs.

$48,980,257.54 on a single transaction for TWO citizens. FEDGOV has already spent it just as fast as they got it.

The August 24, 2015 close was $103.15. If the retained shares go up to $135 (recent highs) by tax day, whether January or April 2016. Then they can cash the shares to pay for the tax on the current lower amount and keep the remaining shares too. I believe they can opportunistically sell as well.

 

[LordVic]

Remember: This isn't actually money. Tim and Eddy don't receive any money at this point. They only receive Stock worth that amount. at this point, it's of no value until that stock is sold or transferred.

(but at that point they will get taxed at fractions of what they would be if they were given the equivalent of a real bonus)

 

[rdlink]

I bet they could even retire if they wanted.

If they are careful with their money, and clipped coupons.

 

[unplugme71]

There hasn't been born a single person who can't think of something to do with 94 million dollars. If you had it, you'd have no trouble finding a use for it. The lottery has proven that time and time again, although the key is to know when to stop spending.

Heh, in one of my college classes we had to create a spreadsheet of all things we wanted in life if money was no object.

Lets just say after 1.43 billion, I couldn't find anything else to spend on.

This included 76 cars (classic and exotics), a house or condo in Cali, NYC, Paris, Tokyo, and few scattered elsewhere on private islands. A private jet and yacht. A baseball and football team. And a bunch of gadgets and so forth.

The interest and income generated from some of the stuff would make me so much richer that I couldn't keep the spend up. So spending a few hundred million is easy to prove. Spending billions is a LOT harder. I mean, you literally have to buy a hammer for 100 grand to blow through money faster.

This did not take into account any taxes paid on the properties.

The result proved that after a certain point a single person can not spend fast enough the income earned.

 

[Rogifan]

Remember: This isn't actually money. Tim and Eddy don't receive any money at this point. They only receive Stock worth that amount. at this point, it's of no value until that stock is sold or transferred.

(but at that point they will get taxed at fractions of what they would be if they were given the equivalent of a real bonus)

What is Eddy's award for? Hopefully not Apple Music.

 

[LordVic]

What is Eddy's award for? Hopefully not Apple Music.

we can nitpick Eddy's direct involvement in specific projects, but at the end of the day, Apple is seeing record revenues and profits regularly while he's there. Board of directors must believe he is entitled to bonus awarded.

I dunno. I'm not on the board .

But I have a very VERY strong dislike for Stock based awards and bonuses because of their tax avoidance implications.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

They timed that suspiciously well.

1. Cook/Cue's shares vested on August 24. This doesn't look like "suspiciously well" timing:

AAPL:

2. They haven't sold any of their RSUs regardless.

 

[GadgetDon]

I knew something like this was coming when Cook put out a statement to calm the drop in Apple stock...that was so rare for Apple that it could only have been self serving

It would've been in Cook's interest to have the stock price be lower. For the actual stock, it means what he was paid on paper was of lower value so less taxes. For stock options, lower price means lower strike price which means more income when exercised.

 

[sammaffei]

iPad sales almost non-existent. iPhone sales down. Apple Watch not as big a hit as anticipated (pulling an Amazon and not releasing sales numbers). Apple TV losing market share every day with continual delays of a hardware update. Apple Music looking like it will retain only 5 million paying users (compared to Spotify's 20 million). And, now China not panning out as anticipated.

Not bad pay for helming a sinking ship.

Even if the stock loses half it's value before Cook & Cue show folds it's tent, that's still an awesome exit package.

 

[Rogifan]

we can nitpick Eddy's direct involvement in specific projects, but at the end of the day, Apple is seeing record revenues and profits regularly while he's there. Board of directors must believe he is entitled to bonus awarded.

I dunno. I'm not on the board .

But I have a very VERY strong dislike for Stock based awards and bonuses because of their tax avoidance implications.

I wonder why only Eddy got this and not the other execs. Unless they're on a different schedule.