Of all the Silicon Valley executives who have a vesting event scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, the one who stands to reap the most is Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to a new study by the Equilar research group (http://www.equilar.com) — as reported by “The Wall Street Journal” (http://macte.ch/kz53C).
Cook has portions of two restricted-stock-unit grants — including one he received for filling in for the late Steve Jobs when the co-founder was on medical leave — vesting in the first quarter. Also, there’s a grant of 200,000 restricted stock units awarded to Cook in September 2008 as part of a package of bonuses paid out to Apple executives to keep them from jumping ship.
As of Apple’s closing stock price on Dec 30, those vesting shares of Mr. Cook’s were worth US$96.2 million, according to Equilar. The vesting stock is separate from an award of one million share units given to Cook as he officially took on the role of CEO.
As noted by “MacRumors” (http://www.macrumors.com) that grant is worth $415 million at today’s stock price, but won’t vest for a number of years. Cook will receive half of the shares in 2016 and the remainder in 2021, with both events contingent upon him remaining CEO of Apple.