Apple doles out $60m stock grants to execs

Apple Inc., seeking to retain its management team in the wake of former Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s death last month, gave $60 million restricted-stock grants to most of its senior vice presidents.

Software executive Scott Forstall, hardware manager Bob Mansfield, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, marketing chief Phil Schiller, General Counsel Bruce Sewell and operations manager Jeff Williams each received 150,000 in restricted stock units, which vest between 2013 and 2016, according to filings Friday. Eddy Cue, a newer senior vice president who handles Internet software, received 100,000 stock units.

“Our executive team is incredibly talented and they are all dedicated to Apple’s continued success,” said Steve Dowling, a spokesman for the Cupertino, California-based company. “These stock grants are meant to reward them down the road for their hard work in helping to keep Apple the most innovative company in the world.”

CEO Tim Cook is working to prevent a brain drain at Apple, which Jobs built into the world’s most valuable technology company. Over the past 14 years, the management team helped Jobs introduce one best-selling product after another ― from the iMac computer to the iPhone to the iPad. Cook took on the CEO role in August, less than two months before Jobs’s death.

The $60 million figure is based on the current stock price, and the final value will depend on the price when the grants are exercised. The shares, up 24 percent this year, were little-changed Friday, closing at $400.24.

Cook received 1 million restricted stock units, currently worth more than $400 million, when he became CEO in August. Half the grant vests in 2016, with the rest vesting in 2021, so long as he stays at the company.

One top executive, industrial-design manager Jony Ive, wasn’t mentioned in the latest stock grants. Because Ive isn’t classified as an executive officer by Apple under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, the company can keep his compensation private. Despite carrying the senior vice president title, Ive isn’t listed as an executive officer by Apple in its annual shareholder proxy statement.