Apple is in the midst of wrapping up a landmark year right now, managing to push past $100 billion in revenue for the first time in the company’s history. As a “thank you” to the top executives responsible for overseeing this achievement, the Mac-maker is handing out one million shares of stock in all to seven key senior vice presidents, according to The Wall Street Journal (via MacRumors).
The seven recipients are: Eddy Cue (SVP, Internet Services), Scott Forstall (SVP, iOS Software), Bob Mansfield (SVP, Hardware Engineering), Peter Oppenheimer (SVP and CFO), Phil Schiller (SVP, Worldwide Product Marketing), Bruce Sewell (SVP and general counsel) and Jeff Williams (SVP, Operations). Apple was required by law to file the bonuses with the SEC; Cue got 100,000 shares of restricted stock units (RSU) and the other six SVPs got 150,000 apiece of the same.
The RSU status of these shares effectively keeps the seven executives locked in as Apple employees until 2016. A restricted stock unit cannot be traded freely until an exercise date has been reached. In the case of these bonuses, half of the awarded shares reach their exercise dates in 2013 and the rest in 2016, effectively locking the SVPs into their Apple work until that date at the earliest. Any one of them can choose to leave at any point, of course, but it would come at the cost of losing any shares that haven’t hit their exercise date.
CEO Tim Cook is locked into a similar sort of arrangement. He received one million RSU shares when he was appointed to the top position earlier this year, with one chunk vesting in 2016 and the rest in 2021, provided he’s still with the company. Also, just to give you an idea of the amounts we’re talking about here: as of today, the 150,000 shares of Apple stock given to each of the six SVPs is worth $60 million (Cue’s 100,000 is worth $40 million).
