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Apple CEO Tim Cook was the second highest paid CEO in the United States in 2019, according to Bloomberg's list of the highest paid CEOs and executives in 2019. Cook received compensation totaling $133,727,869 by Bloomberg's count.

appleceotimcookpay.jpg

Almost all of Cook's compensation was provided in the form of stock awards and related performance bonuses. As reported by the SEC earlier this year, Cook received a $3 million base salary with $7.7 million in incentives, with the rest coming from stock awards that vested during the year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the number one highest paid CEO in the United States during the year, receiving close to $600 million. Charger Communications CEO Tom Rutledge, former acting CEO of CBS Joseph Ianniello, Chewy CEO Sumit Singh, and Blackstone Group COO Jonathan Gray all earned over $100 million.

As for other tech company executives, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai earned $86 million, Intel CEO Robert Swan earned $99 million, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $77 million.

Cook regularly contributes to charity organizations and in the past said that he plans to give away the vast majority of his wealth.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook's 2019 Compensation Totaled Over $133 Million
 

centauratlas

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2003
1,814
3,760
Florida
"in the past said that he plans to give away the vast majority of his wealth."

While in general that may be good relevant questions are:
1. When will he give it away?
2. To whom will he give it? Will it be like Gates who gives to a foundation he controls?
3. Will it be like Gates, Buffett et al who are clamoring for higher estate taxes, yet will give remaining funds to their own foundations, thus avoiding all the taxes?

Charity is good, self-serving charity that is primarily virtue signaling while advocating for different treatment for others is less so.


...

I'm curious - whats the difference between option and stock awards?


Options are awards of options to purchase stock at a set price. Stock awards are giving actual stock.

So you could get 100 shares of APPL, and 100 options to purchase Apple during a 5 year period at $100/share (or whatever.)
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
3,700
Well some people don’t need to worry about the ongoing pandemic and the economic crisis.....

How so? The overwhelming majority of compensation is stock-based (due to US tax laws). This means their wealth is highly tied to stock performance. Options are particularly sensitive, since if the stock price drops below the exercise price, the options are effectively worthless.
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He's compensated more because you're paying more.

Stock-based compensation comes out of shareholder's pockets, via share dilution.
 

AppleDude

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2006
51
9
I don't have an issue with high compensation packages. However, I wonder if some CEOs are overpaid using one simple test. To illustrate that test using Musk, if he were told he would only receive $300 million per year, would he have turned down the opportunity? If that's plausible, his compensation makes sense, if not, I'm not sure how to defend it.
 

centauratlas

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2003
1,814
3,760
Florida
How so? The overwhelming majority of compensation is stock-based (due to US tax laws). This means their wealth is highly tied to stock performance. Options are particularly sensitive, since if the stock price drops below the exercise price, the options are effectively worthless.


The easy answer to the "How so?" is that they can sell shares or options, provided that they are not time limited - some are. However, since they are fungible, he could sell stock that was awarded earlier and have it replaced with the new awards.

I think the point was that if you got $133 million this year, and APPL went down 90% you'd still have ~13 million just from this year and so you'd be pretty well insulated from things.
 

Carnegie

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2012
833
1,982
View attachment 932637

Here's a bit better of a screenshot with some breakdowns.

I'm curious - whats the difference between option and stock awards?

A stock award is just getting shares of stock. Typically it's contingent on you remaining with the company for a specified amount of time and sometimes the number of shares you receive depends on how well the company's stock does. Your compensation (e.g., for income tax purposes) is equal to the value of the shares on the day you receive them.

A stock option is a right to buy shares for a certain period of time at a certain price. So you might receive a stock option today that allows you to buy up to 1,000 shares of stock, at the price it trades at today, at any time during the next 5 years. If the price of the stock doubles in a couple of years, you can exercise your option and buy those 1,000 shares at half of that current price. Your compensation is equal to the difference between what you paid (i.e. the option price) and what the shares were worth when you exercised the option.
 

StuBeck

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2008
728
913
How so? The overwhelming majority of compensation is stock-based (due to US tax laws). This means their wealth is highly tied to stock performance. Options are particularly sensitive, since if the stock price drops below the exercise price, the options are effectively worthless.
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Stock-based compensation comes out of shareholder's pockets, via share dilution.

He made more in stock value in a year than the two smallest countries in the world are worth. Assuming he was paid for previous years he was alive, its unlikely he's going to ever have money issues.
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
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The easy answer to the "How so?" is that they can sell shares or options, provided that they are not time limited - some are. However, since they are fungible, he could sell stock that was awarded earlier and have it replaced with the new awards.

You can't sell ESOs, because they're an agreement solely between the company and the employee. They're different from exchange-traded options.

I don't get your second point. As you said, stock is fungible, so it makes no difference (except for taxes) what stock you sell. Your net worth today is always number of shares times stock price.
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Stock performance is based on getting consumers to pay more.

Indirectly. It's based on what Wall Street wants consumers to pay. Indeed, there's concerns about Apple being able to expand into lower-income markets, see India.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,821
6,876
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wow Musk earned a lot more! But $133 million is okay as a salary I guess. Not great but okay.

Honestly Elon Musk ... through heartache and countless hours of NO sleep like a damn grunt, a divorce, then remarriage so many high profile team members leaving (far too early) and investing so much of his previous ventures hard earned money when Tesla was failing back in 2008 ... He's ... Earned ... EVERY ... Penny!

I've been hugely skeptical, but learned. The cars have THE best safety record in the business and in all segments except exotic super sport - coming in 2021, transformed the world in terms of personal transportation (I wish he'd do electric buses after transport trucks; TTC SUCKS in Toronto lol). Styling I wish would change ... I still keep thinking the Model 3, Y especially looks like G-Force character Keyop vehicle.

charstarbuggy.jpg


(Don't ask I was going by my childhood memory of 40yrs ago and had to search and find out what I really looked like).


Intel's CEO probably earned the highest earnings that will ever happen from here on out. Loosing Apple after 2021, Major competition on gaming and server to AMD and other RISC-V chips ... I don't see Intel doing so well 5-10yrs from now until they re-invent their Opteron chip line or the brand to do ARM or RISC based cpu's.

Satya ... I'm VERY shocked he's earned so damn little. Microsoft's server/application os a service business is BOOMING more than ever before within their plethora of Azure Cloud and Teams getting a hold onto the secure collaboration business. Very shocked. He's not about pizzaz but he knows his stuff unlike many CEO's of other companies.
 

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,133
17,434
Florida, USA
One person does not need this kind of money. Shouldn't this money be going to shareholders instead? Hell, Tim Cook is presumably a large shareholder so he'd get some of that anyway.

I mean, I don't disagree that Tim Cook deserves to live large but at what point is it just excessive? Even $20 million a year pays for everything anyone could realistically possibly want.
 

yaxomoxay

macrumors 604
Mar 3, 2010
7,389
34,164
Texas
One person does not need this kind of money. Shouldn't this money be going to shareholders instead? Hell, Tim Cook is presumably a large shareholder so he'd get some of that anyway.

I mean, I don't disagree that Tim Cook deserves to live large but at what point is it just excessive? Even $20 million a year pays for everything anyone could realistically possibly want.

Most of Tim Cook's revenue IS from shares. Salary is minimal.
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Satya ... I'm VERY shocked he's earned so damn little. Microsoft's server/application os a service business is BOOMING more than ever before within their plethora of Azure Cloud and Teams getting a hold onto the secure collaboration business. Very shocked. He's not about pizzaz but he knows his stuff unlike many CEO's of other companies.

Agreed. Nadella really saved Microsoft.
 

konqerror

macrumors 68020
Dec 31, 2013
2,298
3,700
One person does not need this kind of money. Shouldn't this money be going to shareholders instead? Hell, Tim Cook is presumably a large shareholder so he'd get some of that anyway.

Things are priced via dynamics of supply and demand, not based on cost or "need". The market for CEO talent causes compensation to be at this level.

Why does a doctor get paid much more than a fast food worker, even after accounting for educational expenses? Surely they eat the same amount of food and "need" the same basic clothes and shelter.
 
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Primitivejim.com

macrumors newbie
Jun 7, 2018
5
7
Elon Musk doesn't take an annual salary and he hasn't done so for years now. His ONLY compensation is now the performance based option awards. Which he has to INVEST even more money in order to exercise. Then he has to HOLD those new shares a minimum of 5 years before he is legally allowed to sell them. He has stated numerous times he has no intentions on selling any shares for at least 15-20 years. His performance and successes with Tesla and (unrelated at SpaceX) makes his awards worth every damn penny.
ALL of his money is tied up in his different businesses. He is rich only on paper. While he can get a loan against shares in SpaceX and Tesla thats adds additional leverage. The amount of money he has tied up in his own companies is wild.
 
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