Steve Jobs still a ‘cheap date’ for Apple
The mothership’s numero uno, perhaps the last true superstar CEO, gets only $1 a year in salary. But, and this a really big “but,” quite unlike previous years, the value of the shares he owns in the company have plummeted in value.
The Associated Press (SFGate.com) reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs took his customer $1 annual salary as he has since rejoining the Cupertino, CA-based Mac, iPod and iPhone maker way, way back 1997. Taking inflation into account, however, that 11-year-old dollar is now only worth about 66.5 cents.
That’s a pretty return for Apple and a sobering reminder of what a dollar’s really worth for those of us who actually work for a living. Nevertheless, that loss is nothing compared to the shriveling valuation of the substantial stake Jobs holds in Apple—he has lost $500-million or, if you prefer, a half billion dollars, since the economy and the stock market collapsed last year.
A glass half empty?
When AAPL was trading at around $200 per share, Mr Jobs 5.5-million stake was worth in the neighborhood of $1.1-billion. Now, with the Mac maker’s securities now trading at around $90, well, Jobs might have to shop around a little to find a Pacific island nation he can comfortably afford.
Then again, Steve’s Apple holdings are only a small percentage—well South of 10 percent actually—of his estimated $5.7-billion fortune, a tidy sum that is largely traceable to the sale of his other company—Pixar Animation—to Disney back 2006. A deal that netted him a 7.3 percent stake in the rat, making him that company’s largest shareholder.
So, should we feel even the least bit sorry for Apple’s dollar-a-year CEO? Well, let’s put it this way, a dozen of us ordinary blokes could probably live out our days quite happily on a year’s interest of what he has left. We chumps should be so lucky to share that much change…
What’s your take?
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