SEATTLE - APPLE Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs was paid his
customary US$1 (S$1.40) annual salary in 2009, but Apple's strength
through a rough economic climate returned the value of his personal
holdings in the company to pre-meltdown levels.
Mr Jobs does not get a bonus or reimbursement for perks many
other CEOs accept, such as personal security, according to a
regulatory filing made Wednesday. Apple said it reimbursed Mr Jobs
US$4,000 for company travel on his US$90 million Gulfstream V jet,
which he received as a bonus in 1999.
That's far less than the US$871,000 Apple reimbursed Mr Jobs in
2008. The CEO took nearly six months off in 2009 for medical leave,
during which time he received a liver transplant. He returned to
work at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters part-time
at the end of June.
Mr Jobs, 54, holds 5.5 million shares of Apple's stock. He has
not sold any shares since he rejoined the company in 1997, nor has
he been awarded any new equity since 2003. In 2008, the value of Mr
Jobs' stake in the company he founded was cut in half as investors
worried Apple's pricey gadgets might not fare well through the US
recession. But shares of the maker of iPods, iPhones and Mac
computers gained about 42 percent during the 2009 fiscal year that
ended in September, and at the close of trading Wednesday, when
Apple's stock reached US$202.10, Mr Jobs' holdings were worth about
US$1.1 billion.
Mr Jobs is also the largest individual shareholder of The Walt
Disney Co. His 7.4 percent stake is currently worth about US$4.5
billion. At an annual meeting scheduled for Feb. 25, Apple
shareholders will for the first time have a chance to cast an
advisory vote on the company's executive compensation plans.
Shareholders have submitted two other proposals to be voted on
at the meeting. One calls for a detailed environmental
sustainability report, and the other for a board committee devoted
to that issue, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission
filing on Wednesday. -- AP