The Apple Inc chief executive officer collected the tenth and final tranche of the pay deal he received a decade ago after he took over the top job from co-founder Steve Jobs.
The haul consists of about five million shares worth roughly $750 million, according to calculations by Bloomberg News. Part of the payout is contingent on Apple’s stock return over the past three years surpassing at least two-thirds of companies in the S&P 500 – a threshold the iPhone maker cleared by a wide margin.
Apple’s soaring stock price has allowed Cook, 60, to collect top payouts year after year and made him a billionaire. He currently has a net worth of about $1.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
When he succeeded Jobs 10 years ago, some observers doubted that the technocratic Cook could match his predecessor’s star power and continue Apple’s successful streak. But on his watch, the company’s revenue has more than doubled and its shares returned more than 1,100%, pushing the market value above $2 trillion.
