News about Tim Cook’s compensation package are beginning to leak out to the press, and it seems that he will be rather comfortable in his new job. Jobs earned a total of $1, but his compensation was based mainly on his stock holdings, which increased considerably over his time at the helm. When Jobs first started out, Apple was valued at $2.1 billion. As of Friday, it was valued at $349 billion.
As COO, Cook made considerably more than $1 in salary. He was earning $800,000 as his base salary, not including various cash and stock bonuses, which upped his compensation package considerably. In 2010 he walked away with an estimated $59 million.
There is no news yet as to whether he will keep that base salary, or whether he will trade it in for stock options. What is known is that he has received 1 million shares of Apple stock for agreeing to take the job. Half of these stocks vest five years from the date he signed on as CEO. The remainder vest in ten years. The total estimated value of this signing bonus is $384 million.
The one condition is that Cook must be still be employed by Apple on the day the stocks vest. Chances are he will be. Few companies will be willing to pay him more than that to leave.