Apple CEO Tim Cook Gets $102 Million Payout in 2017 After Earnings Rebound, Must Fly by Private Aircraft

Apple CEO Tim Cook will now fly on private aircraft even for personal travel for "security and safety reasons", a regulatory filing with the SEC reveals. Separately, his received a massive increase in his annual bonus, thanks to earnings rebound for the company.

According to a new shareholder proxy statement from Apple, the board of directors has approved that Cook must fly on private aircraft whenever he travels, be it for business or personal purpose.

"This policy was implemented in 2017 in the interests of security and efficiency based on our global profile and the highly visible nature of Cook's role as CEO," Apple said in the shareholder proxy statement filed late on Wednesday. "Any time Cook uses an Apple private jet for personal travel, the costs are considered extra compensation, on which he will have to pay taxes," the statement further said.

Apple has also hired "personal security services" for Cook.

As noted by Bloomberg, Cook received a 74 percent increase in his annual bonus for fiscal 2017 thanks to the earnings rebound after a rare decline in fiscal 2016. His incentive pay is seen to have totalled $9.33 million (roughly Rs. 59.9 crores) for the year ended September 30.

Cook was paid $3.06 million (roughly Rs. 19.6 crores) in salary, as well as what the report notes as a previously disclosed equity award of $89.2 million (roughly Rs. 572 crores), which brings his total annual payout to $102 million (roughly Rs. 654 crores). Each of his top five lieutenants, Luca Maestri, Angela Ahrendts, Johny Srouji, Dan Riccio, and Bruce Sewell received bonuses of $3.11 million (roughly Rs. 19 crores), bringing their total compensation to about $24.2 million (roughly Rs. 155 crores) each, including salaries and stock awards.

According to the latest report from Counterpoint, Apple continues to command lion share of mobile handset industry profits capturing almost 60 percent share globally.

"However, this is down from 86 percent share in the same quarter last year when Samsung had to gulp up a loss due to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle," said Research Director Neil Shah.

Apple's profit share declined by 30 percent (YoY) mainly due to increased mix of previous generation iPhones. "In Q4 2017, we estimate that the total profits of Apple will improve driven by its iPhone X sales. Apple exited the quarter with some iPhone 8 inventory due to softer than expected demand compared to the iPhone 7 series," Counterpoint said.

Written with agency inputs